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Twitter Will Track Your Browsing To Sell Ads

Posted by timothy on from the awareness-is-key dept.

jfruh writes "Remember how social networks were going to transform the advertising industry because they'd tailor ads not to context or to your web browsing history, but to the innate preferences you express through interactions and relationships with friends? Well, that didn't work with Facebook, and it turns out it's not working with Twitter either. The microblogging site has announced that it's getting into the ad retargeting game: you'll soon start seeing promoted tweets that are chosen based on websites you've visited in the past. The innovation, if you can call it that, is that the retargeting will work across devices, so you can be looking at a website on your phone and see promoted tweets on your laptop's browser, or vice versa."

33 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. How does one prevent this ? by middlemen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a genuine question. Assuming one uses Twitter from the phone, how does one prevent the Twitter app on the phone to scan the browsing history ? If they cannot scan my browsing history they cannot give me ads.

    On another note, if there are companies who can scan tweets (such as stocktwits) to give you sentiment analysis, why cant Twitter do the same ? Have they realized that they just have a bunch of web developers who know only Javascript and can't do text processing using it ?

    1. Re:How does one prevent this ? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

      On another note, if there are companies who can scan tweets (such as stocktwits) to give you sentiment analysis, why cant Twitter do the same ? Have they realized that they just have a bunch of web developers who know only Javascript and can't do text processing using it ?

      Even more so because Twitter has direct access to their databases while all other developers must work through the Twitter API. Don't get me wrong: It's nice, but if you need to analyze massive amounts of data, it can be slow to transfer it from Twitter to your application.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    2. Re:How does one prevent this ? by brunes69 · · Score: 3, Informative

      This isn't even a permission an App can request on Android. Not sure about iOS.

      This is not how Twitter is going to do this anyway. They are doing it via the little "Twitter" links everywhere on the web. These will track your page views, and then the instant you sign into your twitter account on that browser, they will know every page you visited. It is no different than how Google knows the pages you visited.

      You can block it in two ways... either a) never sign into twitter in your browser unless in Incognito mode, or b) Block third-party cookies and trackers using Ad Block. I do the latter.

    3. Re:How does one prevent this ? by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      I don't use Twitter, so I'm not sure ... but I've got AdBlockPlus on my phone.

      But this is just one of the many reasons why I'm not interested in Twitter, and have most of my browsers well equipped with cookie blockers, script blockers, and a raft of stuff to keep things like this away from me.

      I have no desire to help advertisers and the like collect more information. And I'm certainly not going to provide it if I can avoid it.

      Maybe they can sell me targeted ads for tinfoil or something. ;-)

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:How does one prevent this ? by Boss,+Pointy+Haired · · Score: 2

      They know every website you've visited that has a "Tweet" or "Follow Me" button on it, so could easily target ads based on that - doesn't involved reading your browser history at all.

    5. Re:How does one prevent this ? by surmak · · Score: 2

      Request Policy

    6. Re:How does one prevent this ? by Dodgy+G33za · · Score: 2

      I thought you wrote "wife".... put a completely different complexion on the post.

    7. Re:How does one prevent this ? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And this is true even if you don't have a twitter account or use Twitter. It is just in that case they don't know anything about you.

      And this is why ad blockers, cookie blockers, and script blockers are your friends.

      Deny them the data is the best approach.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    8. Re:How does one prevent this ? by unitron · · Score: 2

      I thought you wrote "wife".... put a completely different complexion on the post.

      Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wi-fi.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    9. Re:How does one prevent this ? by Thanshin · · Score: 2

      Well, at least you cracked the neighbor's wife.

    10. Re:How does one prevent this ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Don't use Twitter? Life will still go on.

    11. Re:How does one prevent this ? by mlts · · Score: 4, Informative

      I use sandboxie, and find it well worth using. With additional "supercookies" and methods to save state, having all Web browser data saved on a different volume, and is completely purged when done, no matter how many hidden files are written, is a good method of protecting privacy. Doesn't take much doing either. One can force a browser to run in a sandbox, or just right-click on it, select "run in sandbox", pick the sandbox you want it in, and go.

      This is also coupled with "click to play" for Flash or other stuff, and using AdBlock for an extension, so the browser doesn't have to deal with most of the nasty stuff.

      I also run a different browser for banking that I do general browsing. The more separation, the better.

      People firewall their computers, might as well have a layer of security (sandbox or VM) against untrusted code that hits their machines directly.

    12. Re:How does one prevent this ? by TheP4st · · Score: 2
      The type of tracking in question have nothing to do with what OS you use as it is done via those little social media links that are present all over on nearly every damn website of a reasonably large size.

      Use an iPhone. Stop being the product.

      Use CyanogenMod. Stop being the product or a tool.

      --
      "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
    13. Re:How does one prevent this ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This isn't even a permission an App can request on Android. Not sure about iOS.

      There is, actually. READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS

        To prevent apps from using this (and other permissions) download something like App Ops or root your device and use XPrivacy.

    14. Re:How does one prevent this ? by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

      There is always the next step up -- a VM.... Long term, this complete sandboxing functionality should be in the OS.

      Did you read my post? Running everything in (separate) VMs is exactly the point of Qubes OS, with the advantage (compared to Windows or VMWare) of being Free Software.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    15. Re:How does one prevent this ? by roscocoltran · · Score: 3, Informative

      The IP is not the only way to identify a browser.

      try this link and cry:
      how unique is your browser

      I talk smart, but my nerd resolution of 2400x1920 gives 15 bits of identifying identification, and firefiox ESR give 10.

      "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 3,665,195 tested so far."

      in fact disabling cookies makes your browser more unique. Add the timezone, the fonts, the plugins and your browser quickly becomes more and more unique.

    16. Re:How does one prevent this ? by mlts · · Score: 2

      Yes, Qubes is useful. I was pointing out how to accomplish a fraction of the security of said OS with existing tools.

      In a perfect world (i.e. no installed base), that would be how all desktop operating systems would be. The ideal would be a type 1 hypervisor, a backend deduplicated filesystem, copy on write capabilities, and so on. Someone fires off their office suite in one VM, save a file to a shared directory only visible to that VM and the mail client VM, and so on. Essentially not just virtualizing the memory space like conventional operating systems do, but completely duplicating libraries and all userspace.

      In addition, the application VMs can be encrypted, only decrypted when used, and once done, the keys purged. This way, if a laptop is stolen while it is being used, not everything is compromised.

      Only downside of this is that it does take a learning curve. I was trying to point out a solution that is better than nothing -- stick the Web browser in its own box, well away from anything sensitive.

  2. that old bait and switch by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    and it still works, too.

  3. Re:Impending backfire of doom by ogar572 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe it will open your eyes to new genres

  4. Looks like Twitter wants to join Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Into my DNS blocklist with all your domains!

  5. Re:Impending backfire of doom by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    Thereby requiring both eyeball and brain bleach.

    Rule #34 is alive and well, and there's some weird stuff out there.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Here's how by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    According to Twitter's official post regarding this:
    "While we want to make our ads more useful through tailored audiences, we also want to provide simple and meaningful privacy choices to our users. Twitter users can simply uncheck the box next to “Promoted content” in their privacy settings, and Twitter will not match their account to information shared by our ads partners for tailoring ads. And because Twitter supports Do Not Track (DNT), Twitter will not receive browser-related information (a browser cookie ID) from our ads partners for tailoring ads if users have DNT enabled in their browser. Our Help Center has more information about these options."

    If you're concerned about tracking and DON'T currently have DNT enabled, you really should. It appears opting out of "promoted content" will cause them not to show you tailored ads, but doesn't mean they won't store the data (and possibly share that info with others).

  7. adverts are too late by zaax · · Score: 2

    and that the main problem with adverts they are using history and history is to late, as most people have moved on to otherthings.

    Now prediction advertising....

  8. advertising on faulty assumptions by kisrael · · Score: 2

    Man, there's an err of pathos to when similar strategies are applied elsewhere, somehow Youtube noticed I went to a standing desk site, now half my adverts are from there. And also, they don't notice when I've actually bought a damn thing, so more advertising is just down the drain... I guess advertising is such a small % game that they'll take whatever "bump" they can get, no matter how stupid they look.

    --
    SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  9. Re:I'm glad they're adamantly opposed to surveilla by Desler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They aren't opposed to government surveillance. They are opposed to the damage done to their images because their collusion with the government was publicly revealed. Had Snowden never leaked anything you would have heard jack-and-shit from these companies about "reform". They would have just continued writing it off as a cost of doing business.

    I'm sure I'll get downmodded again like I was yesterday for pointing this out by the clueless numbnuts who fall for these corporate PR stunts.

  10. Only for the dumb people. by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you are not running with adblock on your browsers you deserve to have this crap happen to you. ALL websites need to be treated as hostile (Slashdot included) and you need to run browser extensions that disable and protect you from this crud. Adblock, redirect protectors, privacy reclaimers, etc...

    And if you are a good computer person you install all this stuff on every computer you touch.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Only for the dumb people. by fbobraga · · Score: 3, Informative

      And if you are a good computer person you install all this stuff on every computer you touch.

      But not in phones...

  11. Re: Nice.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think the point is he doesn't want a cookie...

  12. Re:Nice.... by findoutmoretoday · · Score: 3, Informative

    Good thing I never used either FB or Twitter.

    if you have seen any FB icon, you're on FB

  13. Re: Nice.... by znrt · · Score: 2

    OP is educational. #sarcasm is irrelevant.

  14. Come to the dark side. We have cookies! by hackertourist · · Score: 2

    So THIS is what that slogan is all about...

  15. Re:Inevitable really. by Megane · · Score: 2

    I remember when cable TV started in the US, it was merely a way not to have to fuck around with an antenna and rotator and still get a crappy signal. The "cable-only" channels came later in the early '80s, but only the "movie" channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) didn't have ads. Must be a difference in how cable TV started in the UK, I suppose.

    I've been happily back to antenna for over a decade, especially since it went digital. (It works as long as you don't care to watch live sports, which are mostly on cable/sat-only channels now.)

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  16. Re:Nice.... by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 2

    There's several copies of me on FB. If you can't keep them from collecting data on you, overload them with redundant and irrelevant information.