According to Mashable, Twitter quietly updated its Terms of Service on Friday in anticipation of new European Data Protection (privacy) laws. Unfortunately for U.S. users, Twitter's new terms apply to international and not U.S. based users.
An Irish subsidiary was chosen as the location for international user data because it has a reputation for less Internet related regulations. In other words, other European countries have different beliefs in how data should be protected. In my opinion, many of Ireland's Internet related regulatory positions are based purely upon economic reasons.
Less regulations may mean more economic development. For example, I live and work in Montgomery County, Maryland and it has an unfavorable regulatory reputation compared to multiple Northern Virginia counties. Therefore, Fortune 500 companies are more willing to relocate and open subsidiaries in the "business friendly" climate of Virginia.
In general, social media companies are not platforms that are built with privacy by design in mind. The services provided by Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc... were created to data mine users for behavioral advertising purposes (don't believe any co-founder who states they wanted to make the world a better place, etc....). Therefore, I do not trust these platforms to handle any sensitive or confidential information/communication.
The European Union is working on stronger data protection regulations because it understands the dangers inherent when companies engage in unfettered collection and data mining of personal information. It is expected that Europe will enact stronger data protection laws sometime later this year. My hope is that the U.S. will follow the EU's lead in trying to create a more private, less discriminatory, and non-monopolistic digital data future.
Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
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