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TECHNOLOGY Friday 19 May 2017

What Twitter’s privacy changes mean for you

BARBARA ORTUTAY days instead of 10, which nonprofit Electronic Pri-
AP Technology Writer allows it to create more vacy Information Center.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter’s comprehensive profiles of “Also, all of the settings
new privacy policy sug- people. now default to disclosure,
gests ambitions of becom- In addition, Twitter will no which means users have to
ing more like Facebook — longer honor the “Do Not go in and change their pri-
more tracking of users and Track” option that let peo- vacy settings.”
more targeting of ads to ple say no to being tracked YOUR OPTIONS
rake in more money. by the likes of ad and social If you are in the U.S., move
Twitter recently reported networks. Many such net- to Europe. Besides achiev-
its first quarterly revenue works no longer honor that ing your dreams of finally
decline since going public. option anyway. Polonetsky living in a tiny flat in Paris
That should give you some said Twitter had been with a stray cat named
clues about the reasons “one of the rare prominent Gaston and a mustached
behind the policy changes, brands that respected Do baker named Olivier, you
which take effect June 18. Not Track.” will also have stronger on-
WHAT’S CHANGING? WHY IS TWITTER DOING line privacy protections.
Twitter was already track- THIS? This Wednesday, April 26, 2017, photo shows the Twitter icon on Twitter will store data about
a mobile phone, in Philadelphia.
ing users. For example, if The short answer is money. Associated Press your web activities for 30
you visited a webpage A longer answer? Targeted days now instead of 10,
that had an embedded ads that are tailored to mated to get just $2.3 bil- tailored ads you already but it won’t do this for us-
tweet or a button to share your whims and tastes are lion, or about 1 percent. see will improve and that ers in the European Union
something on Twitter, you more lucrative than ge- Twitter’s investors are hun- “we’ve given you even and the European Free
could be tracked and tar- neric ones. That’s the sell- gry for a larger slice of the more control” over your Trade Association (Iceland,
geted. ing point of online adver- pie. data. Liechtenstein, Norway and
With the changes, Twitter tising, and the reason why IS THIS BAD FOR YOU? Your next option is to click a Switzerland), because it’s
expands the pool of peo- companies like Facebook, That depends on whom highlighted “sounds good” prohibited. Barring that, go
ple it can track and lets Google and Twitter offer you ask. Twitter, of course, box, or choose “review set- to http://twitter.com/per-
the company collect more their services for free. The is giving the impression that tings,” which appears in sonalization on a browser;
data about those people implied understanding is it’s a good thing, or at least less prominent type under- from an app, click the set-
when they are visiting sites that they will make money not something many users neath. Sounds good? Not tings wheel from your pro-
around the web, said Jules off you by showing you ads. will care about. In a pop- to privacy advocates. file, then choose “Settings”
Polonetsky, CEO of the Fu- Research firm eMarketer up notification telling us- “Twitter’s announcement is and “Privacy and safety.”
ture of Privacy Forum, an expects worldwide digital ers of the change, Twitter bad news for online priva- You can go through the
industry-backed think tank ad spending to hit $224 bil- chirps that you will “soon cy. The company dropped permissions piece by piece
in Washington. lion this year. Google and start to see more relevant Do Not Track and gave and decide, for example,
For example, the company Facebook will command Tweets and ads based on advertisers access to more whether to turn off person-
will now keep data about a combined $110 billion of your visits to sites with Twit- user data,” said Marc Ro- alize ads (but still get non-
users’ web activities for 30 this. Twitter, though, is esti- ter content.” It says that the tenberg, president of the targeted ads). q
EU fines Facebook over

misleading information

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Euro- book and WhatsApp user must be able to take de-
pean Union has fined Face- accounts. cisions about mergers’ ef-
book 110 million euros ($122 But the Commission says fects on competition in full
million) for providing mis- that in 2016 WhatsApp of- knowledge of accurate
leading information over its fered updates including facts.”
buyout of mobile messag- the possibility of linking user Facebook said in a state-
ing service WhatsApp. phone numbers with Face- ment that it “acted in good
The European Commission book user IDs. faith” throughout with the
said Thursday that when Competition Commissioner EU office and “sought to
Facebook informed it of the Margrethe Vestager said provide accurate informa-
2014 takeover it had said the fine is proportionate tion at every turn.”
it would be unable to “es- and serves as a deterrent It added that the “errors This Feb. 19, 2014, file photo, shows WhatsApp and Facebook
app icons on a smartphone in New York.
tablish reliable automated to other companies. we made in our 2014 filings Associated Press
matching” between Face- She said “the Commission were not intentional.”q