Twitter becomes the newest member of the list of companies that admit they upload users complete address book to their servers, with the caveat they only store it for 18 months
The blogosphere, social media and alternative media websites are a buzz with fury over Twitter's admission today that they have been deceptively uploading users entire address books to their servers.
The revelation follows a similar announcement that Path engages in a similar practice. The company has been accused of providing their app for free so they can spy on their users. The situation is now escalating to the point that federal regulators will soon be forced to step in and demand more regulations to put out the firestorm, following similar news that many mobile phone users, including the popular iPhone, have been facing similar privacy violations for months now.
The Twitter announcement is the most widespread violation of user's privacy to date. Aggravating the situation is the fact that Twitter downloads the entire address book of users who use the "Find Friends" feature on the app, including names, email addresses and phone numbers, and stores the data on its servers for 18 months, according to a report on ReadWriteWeb citing the following article from The LA Times.
Twitter stores full iPhone contact list for 18 months, after scan
Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the "Find friends" feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months. The company also said it plans to update its apps to clarify that user contacts are being transmitted and stored.
The company's current privacy policy does not explicitly disclose that Twitter downloads and stores user address books.
It does say that Twitter users "may customize your account with information such as a cellphone number for the delivery of SMS messages or your address book so that we can help you find Twitter users you know."
As with many online social services, Twitter allows users to look for friends that are also registered users. In the case of Twitter's iPhone app, users see a screen noting that the service will "Scan your Contacts for people you already know on Twitter." The short description of the feature does not mention that it also downloads every entry in the address book and stores it.
Twitter's current privacy policy notes that some categories of "Log Data" are stored for up to 18 months.
"Log Data may include information such as your IP address, browser type, the referring domain, pages visited, your mobile carrier, device and application IDs, and search terms," the policy says. "Other actions, such as interactions with our website, applications and advertisements, may also be included in Log Data."
In response to questions about the process, Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said the company is planning an update to the language they use in the mobile app.
"We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users," Penner wrote in an email. "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. In place of 'Scan your contacts,' we will use "Upload your contacts" and "Import your contacts" (in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, respectively).
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Users who have already had their data uploaded to Twitter's servers can remove their contact databases using the "remove" link in the fine print of the import contacts page on Twitter's Web site, Penner said.
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