back to article Twitter mobile apps storing address books for 18 months

Twitter has become the latest in a growing list of companies caught storing user’s data without making it explicit. The company has admitted that it is storing the entire address books of users for 18 months, if they use the “Find Friends” feature on its iOS and Android clients. The function searches through your existing …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Double privacy fault

    What annoys me about these kinds of programs is the contents of that address book. How does the Twitter Account holder become the one who decides if all those individuals on his address book agree to have their data stored on Twitter's servers to do with as the will?

    My business email address is in many address books of my clients. And these idiot clients then upload MY personal data to the Twitter server without asking me first if this is okay.

    And it is not just Twitter... I still keep getting invites from Facebook asking me to join, and then that shows me a list of other people I may know. And that list is often correct, and plain scary when I see the connections they have already worked out about me.

    Of course... if you try and contact these companies to complain about use of my personal data that has been uploaded by a third party... there is no where to complain without a Facebook\Twitter\etc account. Last time I tried to chase Facebook to get my data removed, all their pages about it hit dead links

    1. LarsG

      Re: Double privacy fault

      How about a yes or no box on anything that implies or suggests the sharing of private information?

      Instead of hiding it on page 6799 out of 8000 pages of terms and conditions.

    2. Graham 32

      Re: Double privacy fault

      Firstly, I think you are confusing "personal" with "private".

      And when you give your details to someone do you have them sign an agreement saying what they can and cannot do with that information? I guess not. It's certainly not private, nor is there any obligation on your friends to keep it private.

      If you want to keep your details secret don't tell anyone!

  3. Spearchucker Jones
    FAIL

    LinkedIn does it too.

    Added a contact to Outlook a month ago, and he's now in the "people I might know" list, after he joined LinkedIn a couple days ago.

    I did not share my address book with LinkedIn, I do use the social connector in Outlook, and I did not give any informed consent to my data.

    Bastards.

    1. g e
      Facepalm

      Re: LinkedIn does it too.

      Double fail

      Outlook and the LinkedIn plugin installed ?

      1. Mark 65

        Re: Re: LinkedIn does it too.

        Seriously? A LinkedIn plugin exists? How does anyone think that will end when it gets added to your email, contact and calendar app?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "She also pointed out that Twitter users can remove the information from their contacts database on Twitter using the companies own Remove tool on the Import Contacts page. The data may still be stored in backups however"

    What part of 'opt-in' are all these fuckers unable to understand?

    1. Craigness

      Re:

      I can't see a remove tool on that page!

  5. Craigness

    They all do it

    Here's an interactive table of popular apps for iphone and android, showing what data they send to app makers and 3rd parties.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/

    Apple's policy of reviewing code means that when an app sends your username and password to a 3rd party you're perfectly safe. You do use a different password for every account, right?

  6. Jeebus

    Fortunately the data collected is much in line with Twitter itself, self-aggrandising and of negligible application.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not really. They are selling your mates out and will quite possibly reference you in whatever sales spiel they come up with. "Recommended by a friend" is a powerful sales tool. Doesn't have to be true.

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Tim 11

    duh

    so you've told linkedin/your iPad/facebook your email password and you seriously expect it _not_ to harvest your contacts (and anything else it can about you form emails you've sent and received) and phone home to its maker... You are naive in the extreme my friend

  9. SJRulez

    Most people seem to forget that some of these companies such as facebook and twitter don't make money directly from you as a user, their only revenue stream is from advertising to you or selling your data to others.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like