Introduction
Twitter is a system that allows users to send text notes up to 280 characters using a web interface, SMS, instant messaging, or third-party client programs. Messages created on a social network are called tweets. Twitter was initially conceived as a platform for exchanging short messages of up to 140 characters between Odeo software developers. According to Dorsey’s idea, such messages should be immediately displayed on the pages of users who are subscribed to the account of the message’s author (Haffner, 2020). This social network has been actively developing since 2006, and at the moment, there is a problem that Twitter uses personal data for commercial purposes.
Case
The company itself admitted to such activities just a couple of years ago. As a result of unintentional actions, personal information was used for marketing purposes and for displaying contextual advertising to users (Rashid & Zaaba, 2020). Although the company has hidden the total number of victims, Twitter has highlighted the source of the problem: manual targeting by brands has failed (Koksal, 2018). Marketing lists were compiled based on phone numbers and email addresses that users used for double authentication. Twitter has previously violated privacy by improperly storing passwords in clear text (Koksal, 2018). Although Twitter consistently admits to its own mistakes, its frequency does not justify this fact.
Problem
The main problem lies in the RealTime Bidding technology. This technology is opaque while at the same time dealing with a vast amount of personal data. RTB is the target of complaints throughout Europe and America, because of which it has repeatedly proved its unreliability (Privacy International, 2019). The secrecy of targeted ads and the constant failure of leaks make their use illegal in many ways.
Privacy concerns and Behavior in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States
Solution
It is needed to make technologies and their explanation more open. Firstly, now the button “why do you see this ad” is not apparent hidden. Secondly, users must choose the degree of dissemination of information about themselves, including gender, age, and much more. Twitter is primarily a social network, not an advertising platform where users want to chat and read news rather than search for promotional items based on their preferences.
References
Privacy International. (2019). Twitter may have used your personal data for ads without your permission. Time to fix AdTech! Web.
Koksal, I. (2018). ‘Twitter Admits To Exploiting Users’ Personal Data’ , Forbes. Web.
Haffner, M. (2020). Twitter. In Warf, B. (eds.) Geographies of the Internet. New York: Routledge, pp. 277-291.
Rashid, A. F. A., & Zaaba, Z. F. (2020) ‘Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: The Privacy Challenges’ , 2020 International Conference on Promising Electronic Technologies (ICPET), Paris, France, Web.