Twitter Privacy Policy : An overview

I never really wanted my first post on medium to be something very serious. Nonetheless I ventured into this because of my interesting view on data protection and viable privacy policies.

Twitter has sent its updated privacy policy to take effect as from January 1,2020. Trust me, I know reading the privacy policy seems a daunting task which is the reason for this overview of the newly updated privacy policy. I can’t promise that this article will cover all grounds of interest, but I assure you that after reading through you would have an idea of what Twitter has agreed to do concerning your personal data and its privacy.

Basically, the first page had to lay down some basic information regarding the use of twitter, for example one of the few things is that “when you use twitter, even if you’re just looking at tweets. Twitter receives info about you like the type of device you’re using and IP address”

Furthermore, I’d give a brief summary based on the categories of this policy.

1. Information You share with Twitter: It is clear you don’t need to have an account to use some features on twitter such as “searching and viewing tweets”. The policy further states that twitter receives the following information.

• Basic Account Information : when you open an account, of course, such information as your name, phone number, email address is needed. Interestingly, you can also create and manage multiple twitter accounts to express different parts of your identity.
• Public Information : Information such as time zone, language, profile information are deemed public. Whereas twitter has made it clear that you can access the “setting” to modify some info you don’t want public. In fact the policy has expressly stated that “You are responsible for your tweets and other information you provide through our services and you should think carefully about what you make public”.
• Contact Information and Address Book : Twitter need these information to authenticate your account, which is the reason you might need text message for login verification etc. Twitter also uses your contact information to market to you as your country’s laws allows and to help others find your account if your settings permit. Most laws do not allow the use of sensitive data(sex, gender, religion, health) to be used for marketing or ads and I’m pretty twitter follows through with this.
• Direct Messages and Non Public Communications: Twitter has made it clear that such information are protected. According to the policy “we share the content of your direct message with the people you’ve sent them to. We do not use them to serve you ads". I am particularly glad twitter is taking my Dm privacy a bit more serious.

2. Here is another category for Additional information

• Location : Note, that twitter will require information about your sign up. Moreso, subject to settings, twitter may collect, use and store additional information about your location such as your current precise location or places where you’ve previously used twitter. I’m pretty sure you know how to turn on and off your GPS settings.

3. Information Twitter shares and disclose.

• Sharing You Control: This explains the extent to which you can control the information to be shared by Twitter. It reinforces the principle of control by data subjects. According to this policy, Twitter states that “we share or disclose your personal data with your consent or at your direction such as when you authorize a third party web client or app to access your account”. A quick reminder that curious cat is an example of a third party web in this instance.
• Law, Harm and the Public Interest: which means Twitter may preserve, use or disclose your personal data if they believe it is “reasonably necessary”to comply with a law". Kindly note that “reasonably necessary” rests on the subjective test of the attorneys at twitter.

4. Managing Your Personal Information with Twitter : The platform has given consumers the right to some activities regarding their personal data which includes

• Accessing or Rectifying of Personal data: Twitter has provided you with tools and account settings to enable you access, correct, delete or modify the personal data provided OR associated with your account.
• Deletion : Twitter has made it clear that Log Data is kept for 18 months max. Nonetheless, it is also possible to restore your twitter account with 30 days of being deleted or deactivated.
• Object, Restrict or Withdraw Consent : Privacy laws have made it unambiguous that consent must be freely given by the data subject. This supports the narrative that as it has been freely given, it can also be withdrawn. All these can be managed via the privacy setting of twitter.
• Portability : One of the newly developed right for data subject under, especially under the GDPR is the right to data portability. This is supplementary to the right to access as data subjects are allowed to access their data and transfer them from one company to another. Yes, Twitter has got you covered on this ground. It has provided a means to download information you have shared through its services.

5. Additional Information

This is purely on the grounds of jurisdictions. Every personal data obtained from data subjects living in the United States will be monitored by Twitter Inc. and its Data Protection Officers.

While personal data obtained from data subjects living outside the United States will be monitored by Twitter Int’l and its Data Protection Officers.

Privacy Policies are important as they help consumers understand the stance of their service providers regarding the safety and security of personal data.

Lastly, here’s the link to my highlighted copy of the privacy policy, should you find any interest in looking through https://bit.ly/2sTk532

For any enquiries or comments make sure to contact me at sammysheyi@outlook.com