How Do Threads’ Privacy Policy and Data Collection Practices Compare to Twitter and Other Competitors?
With Meta rolling out Threads, a new microblogging platform to rival Twitter, its privacy policy has become a hot topic. In fact, the extensive range of sensitive information collected by Threads has already kept it from being launched in the EU.
This begs the question - how do Threads compare to Twitter and other rivals like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Spill in terms of privacy policy?
Lately, there has been increasing pushback against Meta's data collection practices. The company even ended up getting fined $1.3 billion over surveillance capitalism. How Threads' privacy policy stands against other microblogging sites could be a defining factor behind its success or failure.
Threads vs. Twitter: A Comparison of Data Collection PracticesComparing the data collection practices, Threads surely appears to be a lot more intrusive. The platform not only gathers data across pretty much every category as Twitter, but it also collects a variety of sensitive personal information that Twitter doesn't.
These include health and fitness data, biometric information, sexual orientation, and ethnic data.
Both Twitter and Threads can collect and/or track browsing history, search history, contacts, financial information, usage data, diagnostic information, identifiers, purchase history, and precise location.Both microblogging sites collect user-generated data such as photos, videos, audio, gameplay content, etc. However, it also collects other information about user activity on the platform - Twitter does not.
Both Twitter and Threads collect names, emails, and phone numbers - like most platforms do. Threads goes a step further, collecting physical addresses and other contact information that can be used to contact a user outside the app.
It's pretty evident that while Twitter collects a ton of personal data, too, Threads still takes the lead in this regard. The other popular microblogging sites, however, collect nowhere nearly as much user information.
BlueSky only collects user IDs, email addresses, user-generated content, and diagnostic data. Spill is known to collect some sensitive information alongside contact details, user content, and coarse location.
Mastodon collects absolutely no user data, making it the most privacy-centered microblogging platform among the five.
Why Does It Matter?At a time when Twitter users are frustrated with Elon Musk's way of running the platform and are on the hunt for alternatives, It poses serious competition. However, the privacy concerns associated with the latter could stall a rapid adoption, with growing awareness about data privacy among the masses.
Elon Musk commented on one of Jack Dorsey's tweets, taking a jibe at users migrating to Threads rather than remaining loyal to Twitter, expressing his disagreement.Previously, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, shared a screenshot demonstrating how Threads collects data on areas that Twitter didn't intrude on.
Some of the initial users of the Threads app have questioned Meta's practice of collecting highly sensitive information too.
Meta's previous controversies, especially the recent ones over data collection and sharing throw a shadow over whether Threads would succeed in rivaling Twitter. With the app not meeting the EU's privacy standards, questions also arise on how widely it would be adopted.
It remains to be seen if Threads can make use of the situation to fuel its rise and establish itself as a more popular platform than Twitter.
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