Without much fuss, Twitter has taken another step to be more like Facebook – and added a photo-tagging feature. And in the best traditions of social networks, the privacy-diminisher is switched on by default. The tagging feature means anyone can identify someone in a photograph they post, unless you realise it's happening, log …

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Thursday 27th March 2014 04:29 GMT Anonymous Coward

Autoimmunity

I have no friends.

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1. Thursday 27th March 2014 05:55 GMT Mark 85
  
  Re: Autoimmunity
  
  Maybe I'll open a Twitter account just for kicks and grins and start taking photos and tagging the people and dogs in them as "Anonymous Coward". We'll see how immune you are!!!!
  
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  1. Thursday 27th March 2014 11:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    Re: Autoimmunity
    
    OK, it's a fair cop!
    
    Here is my picture --->
    
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  2. Thursday 27th March 2014 13:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
    
    Re: Autoimmunity
    
    "...and tagging the people and dogs in them..."
    
    Nothing wrong with tagging dogs in pictures
    
    @dogbob
    
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Thursday 27th March 2014 07:52 GMT Kurt S

strange..

.. I just signed in to Twitter after quite some time to disable this thing and it was off by default.

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1. Thursday 27th March 2014 08:04 GMT Gene Cash
  
  Re: strange..
  
  Not for me. I use it about once a day and it was on by default, and I've gotten no emails about a change in security policies.
  
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  1. Thursday 27th March 2014 08:31 GMT wolfetone
    
    Re: strange..
    
    Same as myself. No notifications about it, just happened to read the article.
    
    It was crap like this that made me delete Facebook. Seems any time one of these companies go public the whole idea of privacy (or at least asking for permission) goes out the window.
    
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    1. Thursday 27th March 2014 10:09 GMT Pascal Monett
      
      Re: "any time one of these companies go public the whole idea of privacy [..] goes out the window"
      
      Of course it does. They don't go public to respect your privacy, they go public to have the means to strip-mine it.
      
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    2. Thursday 27th March 2014 10:47 GMT Alister
      
      Re: strange..
      
      It was crap like this that made me delete Facebook.
      
      Wait, What! You deleted the whole of Facebook??
      
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      1. Thursday 27th March 2014 17:05 GMT wolfetone
        
        Re: strange..
        
        Yes, yes I did. Who wants to touch me?
        
        I SAID WHO WANTS TO TOUCH ME!?
        
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Thursday 27th March 2014 12:26 GMT Jonathan Richards 1

How does this work?

There's the set of all people, and the sub-set who are Twitter users. The screenshot seems to indicate that a specific Twitter user can "forbid" their identification in a posted picture. What is the nature of that ID? Is all tagging done exclusively by Twitter handle, or can one post a picture and tag it with a free-form name, nickname or description, e.g. "that smelly bloke who hangs around by the lavs on the way back from school"?

If it's somewhere in the latter categories, then there's no mechanism for opting out that's workable, as far as I can see.

Now, pictures identifying living people (as opposed to just featuring them) are definitely personal data within the meaning of the Data Protection Act, therefore anyone can require that Twitter disclose the personal data that it holds about them, with a Subject Access Request.

Hmm. Despite the fact that there is a Twitter UK Ltd at 100 New Bridge Street, London EC4V 6JA; Company No. 07653064, there seems to be no registration of a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner's Office. That doesn't seem right...

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Thursday 27th March 2014 12:29 GMT An0n C0w4rd

"Promoted tweets"

Until this latest update, you could swipe over promoted tweets and get rid of them. That feature has mysteriously vanished in the new version.

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1. Thursday 27th March 2014 13:15 GMT Wize
  
  Re: "Promoted tweets"
  
  I've not updated in a while. Not since it required 'reading SMS messages' in its list of demands.
  
  Same goes for Facebook.
  
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