Twitter App Address Data Collection Criticised

Internet-based social networking site Twitter is set to publish clearer privacy guidelines following reports that it's been obtaining and storing personal data from users' smartphones.

Criticism's been directed both at Twitter and at Apple, whose iPhone boasts Twitter as an application. The ‘Find Friends' feature allows users to locate new Twitter contacts but it also causes the site's servers to acquire and store iPhone address book entries, including names and telephone numbers.

According to the reports - including one published by the Los Angeles Times - this data is then held for 18 months and while Twitter has stopped short of saying it won't do this any longer, it has pledged to notify users more explicitly about what's going on.

Twitter App Data Collection

Apple's app terms state: ‘Apps that read or write data outside its designated container area will be rejected', along with ‘Apps cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user's prior permission.' Spearheaded by a pair of US congressmen, a formal complaint concerns how Apple has permitted the Twitter app data collection to take place, as it seems not in line with these terms.

"Apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines", an Apple representative told the Press Association. "We're working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release."

Twitter Address Data Collection

The Twitter address data collection process first came to light last week, when a Singapore-based iPhone developer found that the Path iPhone app was downloading address book information without informing users. Since then, Twitter is just one of the social networking sites to have acknowledged it's doing a similar thing: others include FourSquare and Instagram.

"We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users", Carolyn Penner - representing Twitter - stated in comments made to the BBC. She added: "Along those lines, in our next app updates, which are coming soon, we are updating the language associated with Find Friends - to be more explicit."

iPhone image copyright TakuyaMurata - Courtesy Wikimedia Commons