Twitter Will Track Your Browsing To Sell Ads

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."

Comments

How does one prevent this ?

[middlemen]

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 ?

Re:How does one prevent this ?

[brunes69]

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.

Re:How does one prevent this ?

[gstoddart]

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.

Re:How does one prevent this ?

[mlts]

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.

Re:How does one prevent this ?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:How does one prevent this ?

[roscocoltran]

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.

Re:Impending backfire of doom

[ogar572]

Maybe it will open your eyes to new genres

Re:I'm glad they're adamantly opposed to surveilla

[Desler]

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.

Only for the dumb people.

[Lumpy]

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.

Re:Only for the dumb people.

[fbobraga]

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

But not in phones...

Re: Nice....

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Nice....

[findoutmoretoday]

Good thing I never used either FB or Twitter.

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