Will Twitter’s latest announcements to sever all ties with third party service providers and start licensing fire hose data directly itself to customers benefit your privacy, asks Antonio Ghio.
A few days ago Twitter announced a bold move which nobody in the industry was expecting. The company has now decided to close down access to its fire hose data to third party resellers and start licensing the tweets and related metadata directly itself. It will cut off the middlemen from the data transfer chain and commence selling the analytical data to its own customer base.
Twitter’s systems handle more than half a billion tweets a day. This data is ripe with analytical information about what is popular and what we are talking about, from politics and products to sports, weather and the traffic.
In a world of big data analytics, fire hose data is marketing gold. Until now several companies had arrangements in place with Twitter so that they could crunch the statistics surrounding such tweets and the associated metadata and resell same to their customers. In turn, these could then establish what people are saying about their companies, products or political strategies.
Simply put, fire hose data enables you to gauge consumer sentiment, which is why access to it is fundamental for 21st century marketing. Twitter has now decided to change tack and do it alone – especially after its acquisition of Gnip last year – and further augment its advertising revenue streams through increasing its revenue from social analytical services.
This move will surely benefit Twitter from a privacy perspective, or at least reduce its risks. The social media giant will now remove the worries associated with sharing personal information of its users with third party companies since all fire hose analysis will be handled by Twitter itself. The processing related with big data traditionally raises various privacy related questions. Fire hose data however does not necessarily include personal information and Twitter’s latest move will appease those who are concerned that their personal data could end up in the hands of third parties.
Traditionally, fire hose data would not reveal the personal details of the individual making the tweet. In this sense, such data would only relate the information which the user would have made public. A close look at Twitter’s privacy policy reveals that the company makes it abundantly clear that information that users share is meant to be public – however, this does not mean that anything beyond the user’s public profile revealing his or her identity would be available to others outside of Twitter. After all it warns you that, “What you say on Twitter may be viewed all around the world instantly”.
In a world of big data analytics, fire hose data is marketing gold
Well, that is the whole scope of Twitter. The privacy policy also states that the company may share non-personal information about its users, including the public profile and public tweets to advertisers after removing any residual private personal information. In this sense, Twitter’s use of personal data seems to be perfectly in order and the use of information not considered to be personal data by Twitter through its fire hose analytics services complies with basic privacy principles.
While in normal circumstances the processing of personal data requires the data subject’s consent, this is not required when the processing merely relates to statistical purposes, especially when the data is rendered anonymous and the data subjects cannot be identified. Article 8 of our own Data Protection Act provides that the processing of personal data for historical, statistical or scientific purposes shall not be regarded as incompatible with the purposes for which the information was collected as long as the appropriate safeguards are put in place by the data controller and that no decision is taken in relation to the data subject on the basis of such data.
Article 20 of the Data Protection Act obliges third parties receiving personal data from other data controllers to inform the data subjects that they are now in possession of their personal data. Such information would include the identity of the third party now holding the personal data, the purpose for processing as well as information relating to the categories of data being processed. Such obligation however would not apply in situations where the data is being processed for statistical purposes or where such obligation “proves impossible or would involve a disproportionate effort”.
Applying these local data protection rules within a Twitter context could mean that your Twitter personal information could end up with third party analytical service providers who used to access the fire hose without them having an obligation to tell you that they have your personal details. While Twitter would impose high privacy standards on its partners, the question would still arise as to whether such partners were making any additional use of any residual personal data. Through limiting the process and analysis of fire hose data in-house, Twitter has managed to diminish such fears while at the same time maximising on another revenue stream.
The increase in big data services has meant that our fears that our privacy is being violated and that our personal data is being used without our consent have multiplied. Many established companies including Twitter are therefore constantly tweaking their privacy practices to ensure adequate legal compliance.
Beyond the business decisions leading Twitter to shut off the fire hose data to external service providers, the fact that the latter have been now removed by Twitter from the data transfer chain is welcome from a privacy standpoint as it will further reduce any perceptions that your personal information leaves Twitter.
In any case, I don’t think that I will be taking up tweeting any time soon and this not because there is something wrong with Twitter. It is largely because I don’t really fathom that my posts are viewed by the world instantly. After all, I’m no politician and have failed in my quest to become a rock star. But if I do take up tweeting, I will make it a point to let you know. Through a tweet of course.
Dr Ghio is a partner at Fenech & Fenech Advocates specialising in ICT Law (www.fenechlaw.com). He also lectures ICT law and cybercrime at the University of Malta.