Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Sued For Scanning Direct Messages
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: Twittter is facing a new possible class action suit that accuses the company of violating user privacy. The lawsuit states that the company has been "systematically intercepting, reading, and altering" direct messages, most likely a reference to Twitter's long-standing practice of automatically shortening and redirecting any in-message links. The practice could be used to monitor or redirect any URLs included in a direct message, although it's generally seen as a benign extension of the company's broader link-shortening systems. In a statement to USA Today, Twitter, to nobody's surprise, insisted that the allegations are "meritless."
if you had nothing to hide?
These accusations are preposterpous!
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Facebook is being sued over the same practice, as well as for taking it a step further. If you mention a business's Facebook link (and possibly their independent website URL) in a private message, that mention gets counted as a "like" on the business's Facebook page. So not only were they scanning PMs, they were representing endorsements that didn't exist.
This kind of shit is what you get when you use a huge advertising platform as your "private" communication hub.
I haven't used twitter in five years and in that time they haven't intercepted, read, or altered any of my messages.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Is that, like, still a thing?
So basically, twitter is being sued for processing people's direct messages while they process people's direct messages? How do they think direct messages work? Are they transmitted with via unicorns and pixie dust?
Twitter "Intercepted" the messages they were sending via Twitter? I don't think that word means what they think it means.
Incidentally - every SMTP server on the planet "Intercepts, reads and alters" messages.
What I don't understand though, is what damage these people have actually suffered? Or is this just a case of some lawyers noticing what looks to them to be a technical violation of a law, and seeing dollar signs?
s/shortening/elongating/
There, fixed it for you!
In what world
http://t.co/qLxImbQYvn
http://t.co/VnQBo6VP6g
is shorter than
http://bxr.su/
http://cnst.su/
?
Twitter is a free service that users voluntarily sign up to use. I don't remember ever being promised that Twitter would not read direct messages. Where is the expectation of privacy here? Just because other users can't normally see DMs is no implied promise that Twitter isn't going to look at them. If you want private messaging, use a paid service that states so in their terms of service, or better yet, use a messaging application with end-to-end encryption.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Fortunately for us, human instinct is that "we" the people are owed common decency. This occasionally comes back to bite the psychopaths who forget that detail.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
If Twitter's behaviour for elongating the URLs in the public Tweets is any indication, their own bots actually download the contents of the links, allegedly trying to scan it for malware or whatnot.
I, personally, suffer because I never experience any URLs being shortened, they instead only get elongated by the service, reducing already constrained character space.
I mean, you don't have to go far to find a URL shorter than http://t.co/qLxImbQYvn. Even if you have a newly registered .com, it's still likely they'll only elongate it if you ever post a link to it.
And Twitter should really change the name of their subservice disservice to be more technically accurate.
The CEO of Sonic.net is especially annoyed (and rightly so) -- he can't even refer to his company without getting an elongation!
What if they deduped attachments and replaced the "original" with a link to a copy? Is that bad too?
Maybe you, but we all use Ghostery to block those damn buttons.
You mean, if I send a message through Twitter, Twitter is going to see it? Say it ain't so!
This kind of shit is what you get when you use a huge advertising platform as your "private" communication hub
The last time I logged out of my facebook account ... 2004
The last time I logged out of my tweeter account ... 2006
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Honestly, is this something you would ever say to anyone,
if you had nothing to hide?
These accusations are preposterpous!
Absolutely.
This is part of the structure of most lawsuits. They file a complaint, you file a motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted (i.e. they said it wrong), you file an answer, you get cross-motions for summary judgment (both sides argue that even taking all of the facts as favoring the other party, they still win), and finally in one in a thousand cases you go to trial.
Calling a claim "without merit" can generally mean one of two things--it doesn't really matter, or it's BS. Then you explain why it doesn't matter or why it's BS. "The facts show X, here's evidence" or "Even if the facts were what they say they are, they'd still lose."
"...most likely a reference to Twitter's long-standing practice of automatically shortening and redirecting any in-message links."
Slashdot does the dirty deed too.
Hey Shashies, just send the damages money to my PayPal account.
I've noticed that certain tweets, especially if they are politically sensitive, get less impressions. Also, some retweets mysteriously vanish.
Seems like a censorship system is in operation.
Evidence?
How can you get evidence on a mysterious vanishing?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
This is Twitter we're talking about. A DM means that it's not broadcast to the world. If people are surprised that Twitter has control of their Twitter messages, I don't even know where to begin.
Twits.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Fortunately for us, human instinct is that "we" the people are owed common decency. This occasionally comes back to bite the psychopaths who forget that detail.
Far too occasionallly. Fix that, and you patch a major bug in society.
I've noticed that certain tweets, especially if they are politically sensitive, get less impressions. Also, some retweets mysteriously vanish.
Seems like a censorship system is in operation.
Evidence?
How can you get evidence on a mysterious vanishing?
Well, by collecting it. And by finding conditions that reliably reproduce it. These are done with the intent of making it less mysterious. If you can't demonstrate that it's one thing (yet), you can at least rule out a few things that it isn't.