Twitter is changing its privacy policy and will let users opt out of letting the social media platform share their data with its business partners ahead of major new rules set to come into effect next month in Europe.
The changes, announced by Twitter on Tuesday evening, will also apply to users in Canada.
According to a blog post published by the company, the new privacy policy focuses on giving users more controls over their personal data and how it is shared by Twitter with developers and business partners.
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It will go into effect on May 25, which is the same day the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will go into effect and place tough new requirements on companies to comply with tightened consumer and data protection rules.
It also comes in the wake of a massive scandal over how Facebook allowed the personal data of 87 million users to be harvested and shared without their explicit consent.
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“We believe you should always know what data we collect from you and how we use it, and that you should have meaningful control over both,” Twitter said in the blog post announcing the changes.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, and in preparation for new data protection laws that take effect next month, we’re updating our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to empower you to make the best decisions about the information that you share with us.”
So what exactly do the new changes do and how can you tighten what data the company collects on you?
Are the changes optional?
In short, no.
As Twitter notes in its post announcing the changes, users who want to keep using the platform must accept the new privacy policy when it goes into effect on May 25.
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“By using our services on or after that date, you’ll be agreeing to these revisions,” the company says.
However, there are a number of new options available to users in terms of exactly what kinds of data they want to let the company collect and share.
What are my options?
Under the new policy, Twitter will let users opt out of several categories of data sharing and give them the option not to let the company target the advertisements it shows them based on certain criteria.
It’s important to note this does not mean users will not see ads: those that limit targeted ads likely will just see fewer that reflect the things they have recently Googled.
Several categories are listed on the user privacy page for individuals to opt out of:
- Seeing ads personalized, based on their online activity;
- Seeing ads personalized, based on the apps a user has on their devices;
- Saving personalization settings across all of a user’s devices;
- Seeing content personalized, based on user location or past locations;
- Letting Twitter track where a user engages with their content across the internet;
- Letting Twitter share non-public data, such as age, gender and interests with its business partners.
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As Twitter notes on its website, while it does not share certain information like user names and email addresses, the information it does share may be used by others to identify a user if they have more information on their own.
“Twitter does not share your name, email, phone number, or Twitter handle,” the company says.
“These partners may, however, connect the device-level data we share to a user’s name, email, phone number, or other personal data based on other information in the partner’s possession.”
How do I change my settings?
If any of that is concerning, here’s the good news: opting out is pretty darn easy.
Simply log in to your Twitter account and open your account settings by clicking on your avatar.
Click on the “Settings and Privacy” option in the menu.
The page you will then see contains another menu on the left-hand side of the screen containing a tab called “Privacy and Safety”; click that, then scroll down until you see a section called “Personalization and Data.”
Click edit, then choose which of the data sharing options you want to opt out of sharing with Twitter, and remember to save your settings before you close the page.
Why is this happening now?
Social media companies are facing a wave of intense public scrutiny in light of a massive scandal prompted by revelations last month that Facebook had allowed an app developer to scrape and harvest personal data from 87 million users and then give that data to the political profiling firm, Cambridge Analytica.
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That data was then used by the firm in campaigns to support the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and the “Leave” camp in the Brexit vote.
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Users who had their personal information harvested were not immediately told and Facebook has only just begun notifying those who were affected in recent weeks.
Privacy commissioners around the world, including in Canada, are now investigating whether Facebook broke privacy regulations by allowing that data to be harvested and reportedly sold to a third party.
READ MORE: Canadian government to investigate whether Facebook violated privacy act
Senior officials from Facebook as well as the firms involved in the scandal have been called to testify before British and Canadian parliamentary committees, as well as the U.S. Congress, to explain how and why the scandal happened.
However, the new European data regulations have been looming for two years since member states agreed in 2016 to supersede their patchwork national privacy laws with one set of regulations governing the entire bloc.
Those regulations, which are considered by many in the privacy community to be leading-edge when it comes to the protections they extend to users, are prompting social media firms and businesses to evaluate how to update their own rules to comply.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp (the latter two are both owned by Facebook) also announced over the past week they are changing their policies ahead of May 25, when the European rules come into effect.
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