Twitter API ToS To Force Routing Clicks To Twitter

An anonymous reader writes "Twitter has announced that it will change the way it handles URLs in tweets. This has been widely reported, including the likely consequences for bit.ly. What has not received much attention, and was not in the official blog announcement (but in the Google Twitter developers mailing list instead) is that the Terms of Service for all applications that use the Twitter API will be changed to require that any click on a URL in a tweet be routed through a Twitter gateway, allowing Twitter to see exactly which links are followed and by whom."

Comments

Even more tracking?

[Random2]

So I can't distribute kiddy pron any more via twitter?

On a more serious note, I don't see how this won't be abused by governments to track and shut down people who oppose them (like human rights activists that coordinate using twitter).

Re:Even more tracking?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you would prefer to keep using bit.ly, which is Libya. I'm sure we can trust that government. Good thinking!

Meh

[bsDaemon]

I used to hate on twitter pretty hard-core until I realized that it was basically a party-line SMS service and was actually kind of neat. I've used the API via Perl, Ruby and PHP just to mess around, but nothing particularly serious. I actually haven't even bothered to tweet in a couple of weeks.

None of that is particularly relevant, I suppose. I don't think I'll be progressing any further in twitter scripting, not really because of this, but its just sort of lost its appeal. Frankly, I shouldn't really be surprised at this move, though it is kind of annoying from a user perspective, knowing this is how they want to play the game. Of course, their game is kind of like the Baseketball of social networking, and if I just never logged in again, my life wouldn't be any different. Maybe I'll delete my new account I created after I had a change of heart following the last time I deleted a twitter account. I'm pretty sure that I could hold steady in my resolve this time.

False security is worse than none

[Anonymous Coward]

So Twitless will check links for malware. Joe User likes this.

Until the malware creator sniffs the user agent and IP, and returns safe content to Twitter, and only delivers malware to valid targets.

Re:Some good can come from this

[Spad]

Ah, blacklists, the age old method of making sure people don't visit sites that you think are bad for them.

Re:Some good can come from this

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Better than whitelists, where people decide what's good for you.

Re:Classic security versus privacy problem

[dk90406]

And I suspect the people who use twitter don't have the need for privacy high on their list of priorities.

Re:Some good can come from this

[Spad]

Yes, and a punch in the face is arguably better than a kick in the balls :)

Re:hmmm

[Z00L00K]

And soon it will end up making Twitter losing it's popularity.

It seems to me that as soon as commercial interests takes over a certain web service it's obsolete and will soon be replaced by something else.

Learnign from the pros...

[VendettaMF]

"Hey guys, you know how Facebook's been getting away with screwing over the entire world on privacy issues?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"And you know how our average users are even dumber than theirs?"
"Wouldn't have thought it possible if I I hadn't seen it in action, but yeah?"
"Well...Why don't we..."
"Ohhhhhhhh!"

Re:Some good can come from this

[mr_mischief]

They'll just block links to Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, any torrents, news sites critical of Twitter, and coverage of things like the recently outed auto-follow bug...

Only a TWIT would use Twitter

[TrisexualPuppy]

Am I the only one who thinks that Twitter is created by and for morons? It's picture perfect. I can imagine a 60s novel predicting such an avenue for useless information, but the author would have not chosen to name it anything like "Twitter" because his readers wouldn't have taken him seriously.

But hey, who's to bother making such a point amongst the masses? No one even pays attention to accomplishments, elegance, or talent. So many beautiful songs are written every day, and we end up with things like Pokerface, completely void of style or melodic depth, becoming the most popular? How sad. Twits.

--TrisexualPuppy

Re:Only a TWIT would use Twitter

[cgenman]

You're complaining about a lack of elegance and talent in modern music and yet you used that pun in your title?

Twitter is a communications medium that requires brevity and succinctness. It's a chance for friends to keep in touch about moderate to low-importance notifications in a way that is appropriate for their value. "I'm heading to Ikea later today. Anyone want to come?" "Need a replacement for an Ibanez Tubescreamer." Etcetera. It's a bit like the chatter that would happen when people chatter in person, but with a forced character limit. Someone saying "I've had a bad day" isn't interesting in and of itself, but it is interesting if it is from someone you happen to care about.

Re:Only a TWIT would use Twitter

[Just Some Guy]

Am I the only one who thinks that Twitter is created by and for morons?

No. There are plenty of "get off my lawn!" types to go around. I'm not going to write the next Great American Novel on Twitter, but neither can I text my Underwood typewriter and have it relay the message to my friends.

Re:Why change API?

[linzeal]

They distribute 140 character chunks of information, we can just route around them by making an open source twitter.