Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving! Before leaving the office for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I noticed that Twitter has made a troubling announcement about its privacy practices moving forward for its iOS and Andoid users. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Twitter
is now collecting information about the apps installed on users’
devices in order to better target and tailor advertising and other
content to them."
Twitter announced, "[t]o help build a more personal Twitter experience for you, we are
collecting and occasionally updating the list of apps installed on your
mobile device so we can deliver tailored content that you might be
interested in."
Mashable has reported that, "[o]nce the update goes live, users are automatically opted-in to the tracking,
though Twitter will notify users within the app once it starts and you
can opt out at any time. Twitter notes that it is only tracking a list
of the apps users have downloaded and is not accessing any data within
those apps."
In general, most digital and social media platforms are not built with privacy by design in mind. For example, Facebook and Google are notorious for their very troubling privacy policies and practices which demonstrate that user privacy is an afterthought for these companies.
It is none of Twitter's business what apps I have uploaded on my mobile device. Period. End of story. Twitter has a right to monitor the apps I have connected to their platform; however, it has no right whatsoever to automatically know what apps I have downloaded onto my mobile device just because I have downloaded its app. Under no circumstances should this be opt-out. This is a very troubling issue that may lead more apps to do the same thing.
During the past couple of years, the FTC has published multiple reports on the troubling privacy practices of some mobile apps and ecosystems. Does Twitter even have the legal right to automatically opt-in users for this program? Since this was announced right before Thanksgiving, it leads me to believe that Twitter may be trying to bury this troubling matter right before a holiday weekend. Will the FTC soon open an investigation into this issue?
The bottom line is that Twitter and other digital companies should make their defaults opt-in. Opt-out defaults are a threat to personal privacy and safety. I am fully aware of the corporate monetary reasons for automatic opt-in. Wall Street has been disappointed with Twitter's revenue performance and recently punished its stock so this automatic opt-in to the App Graph may be an attempt to increase the corporate bottom line.
If Twitter and other social/digital media companies such as Facebook and Google want me to trust them with my personal and/or corporate data they need to make privacy a priority and not an afterthought.
Copyright 2014 by Shear Law, LLC. All rights reserved.
