Posted on 02/16/2012 7:06:30 AM PST by Texas Fossil
Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the "Find friends" feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months. The company also said it plans to update its apps to clarify that user contacts are being transmitted and stored.
The company's current privacy policy does not explicitly disclose that Twitter downloads and stores user address books.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"Updated February 15th, 12:51 p.m. Twitter has clarified that it does not store names from address books, only email addreses and phone numbers."
Do we really believe that?
I swear, you can’t buy or use any kind of electronic equipment or application anymore without somebody trying to spy on you, whether it’s Uncle Sam or private companies.
They can spy on me all they want to. All I have in my phone list is hookers and I gave them all the CLAP. . . .
You are correct.
hee hee hee
This is a rock-and-a-hard-place situation — to make the system friendly for 3rd party apps, Apple provides APIs for these apps to have (often limited) access to certain user data. While it’s the contacts list in this case, it can also be the music library, photo roll, calendar, etc.
So, allowing Twitter to read the contacts list to help the user quickly associate fellow Twitter users is a good thing, but once that data gets sent to Twitter, it’s out of Apple’s control.
I don’t think prohibiting such operations makes sense, because it reduces the functionality of the device. But these apps should have to request permission and specify how they are using and storing the data, so that users can make an informed choice if the convenience is worth the intrusion.
(By the way, replace Apple with Google, RIM, or Microsoft, and it’s still the same basic situation of balancing the need to use the data to enhance the user experience while getting informed consent to use the data.)
I did not suggest prohibiting data access. I simply want people to “know’ it is being done.
Most of us “assume’ (know) it is being done though.
And it’s FREE !
And so are STD's
Tried getting a GMail addy latley? They want a CELL PHONE number so they can text the confirmation to you! lol no thank you.......
Well what did people think Twitter was gonna do with the info? Immediately discard it?! And note to the paranoids, it ain’t spying when you TOLD the software to scan your phone.
My local ISP discontinued their email service. Forced us to use Google apps on the Cloud or use mail client through the same. I hate it. Told them so, but told them I understand why they did it. (tech support, record keeping, employees)
Still have not found a good replacement, but am still looking.
Hiding in the numbers on the web no longer works.
What about when you are not told? That is what the article is about. Users were not told their contact list would be downloaded.
It’s nice that you applauded them.
There is a link to skip that.
Probably was a link but I didn’t even look I just closed the browser tab and moved on LoL!
I have had an addy with Yahoo since its first year no complaints. I do have one I pay for my ISP did the same I use NetZero cost me $12 a year and no adds.
What did they think the Find Friends feature was going to do? If you hit that link on any of the social websites from something other than your phone it wants you to point it to an address book, either your webmail or a local storage. Simple logic tells you that if you’re hitting it from your phone which has its own address book that’s probably going to be the one it’s looking at, maybe automatically because the phones are all getting social site enabled or with your help. The user hit Find Friends, we all know by now that involves the site perusing your address book, so actually they were told, even if they don’t think so.
When installing an app on an Android device there is always a consent screen that specifies what data the app will access and what hardware features will be affected. That’s how it should be for all platforms.
The company that hosts my website will provide 50 mailboxes with your own domain name (e.g. me@texasfossil.com) and unlimited storage space for about $70/year. In addition to email, you can use the server to store backup copies of your files (I use a free backup utility for this). If you want to know more feel free to Freepmail me.
Yes, I've seen that on my Kindle Fire, and I agree that all app stores for all devices should follow this model.
But that's only half the story -- that's granting the app access to the data, for example, but there still should also be a privacy statement from the developer if they're going to retain the data in any form outside of the device.
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