How will I know this feature is turned on for my account? We will notify you about this feature being turned on for your account by showing a prompt letting you know that to help tailor your experience, Twitter uses the apps on your device. Until you see this prompt, this setting is turned off and we are not collecting a list of your apps.
So, they collect the data first, and then they prompt the user telling them what they have done. This is the opposite of privacy friendly.
How do I turn this feature off and remove my data from Twitter?
Note carefully the overloaded meaning of the word Twitter here. Do they mean the Twitter app, or the Twitter service, or Twitter as a company? Grammatically and meaning-wise, the first one is the only one that makes sense. Which is very alarming...
Because it means, after they "remove" your data from the app, they still have your data. Or does it? It's not completely clear, which is part of the problem. The help text reads one way (no worries, you can delete your data) on a quick reading, but a completely different way on a careful reading.
You can easily adjust the setting that allows Twitter to collect a list of apps on your mobile device. Once you turn off the setting, we will remove your app graph data from Twitter and stop future collection.
Again, one has to wonder what they mean by "remove your app graph data from Twitter." Call me paranoid but to me this reads like weasel words and they still keep a copy of your data, just not on Twitter, whatever they mean by that.
So to recap, the really bad known thing here is they collect the data first, and ask permission later. The possibly really bad unknown thing is maybe they keep the data even after you think you are asking them to get rid of it, while trying to make it appear that they don't.
I don't know how I feel about it. I don't know if I care if Twitter knows what other apps I have installed. This API is what allows Tweetbot to open links in Chrome, and I'd hate for that to disappear.
Maybe Apple can update the API to prompt the user and store that permission for each app?
I also feel that I don't care much if Twitter has my app list (partial app list, that is, because not all apps have URLs).
But how you and I feel isn't the point. Each user will have their own feelings about their privacy, and they should have the ability to control their own information in the way they prefer, with prior consent and opt-in, not opt-out once the data is already taken.
Comments
If you read the details closely of what Twitter is doing here, it's even worse than I had imagined:
From their help center [https://support.twitter.com/articles/20172069]
How will I know this feature is turned on for my account? We will notify you about this feature being turned on for your account by showing a prompt letting you know that to help tailor your experience, Twitter uses the apps on your device. Until you see this prompt, this setting is turned off and we are not collecting a list of your apps.
So, they collect the data first, and then they prompt the user telling them what they have done. This is the opposite of privacy friendly.
How do I turn this feature off and remove my data from Twitter?
Note carefully the overloaded meaning of the word Twitter here. Do they mean the Twitter app, or the Twitter service, or Twitter as a company? Grammatically and meaning-wise, the first one is the only one that makes sense. Which is very alarming...
Because it means, after they "remove" your data from the app, they still have your data. Or does it? It's not completely clear, which is part of the problem. The help text reads one way (no worries, you can delete your data) on a quick reading, but a completely different way on a careful reading.
You can easily adjust the setting that allows Twitter to collect a list of apps on your mobile device. Once you turn off the setting, we will remove your app graph data from Twitter and stop future collection.
Again, one has to wonder what they mean by "remove your app graph data from Twitter." Call me paranoid but to me this reads like weasel words and they still keep a copy of your data, just not on Twitter, whatever they mean by that.
So to recap, the really bad known thing here is they collect the data first, and ask permission later. The possibly really bad unknown thing is maybe they keep the data even after you think you are asking them to get rid of it, while trying to make it appear that they don't.
The problems are:
1. There is no API abuse or sneakiness happening here. They are just using a known, unrestricted API: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/Documentation/UIKit/...:
2. Perhaps the API should be restricted?
I don't know how I feel about it. I don't know if I care if Twitter knows what other apps I have installed. This API is what allows Tweetbot to open links in Chrome, and I'd hate for that to disappear.
Maybe Apple can update the API to prompt the user and store that permission for each app?
I also feel that I don't care much if Twitter has my app list (partial app list, that is, because not all apps have URLs).
But how you and I feel isn't the point. Each user will have their own feelings about their privacy, and they should have the ability to control their own information in the way they prefer, with prior consent and opt-in, not opt-out once the data is already taken.
Yes, I'm sure it's very important that they know whether I have the Dunkin Donuts app installed (dunkindonuts://)