The Telegraph is reporting on a Twitter blog post announcing that the Twitter app for Android and iOS is going to keep track of the list of applications you have installed on your phone or tablet. While the Telegraph is claiming "Twitter to snoop on every app on your phone", Twitter says "We are not collecting any data within the applications."
"Twitter is using your app graph to help build a more tailored experience for you on Twitter." "To help build a more personal Twitter experience for you, we are collecting and occasionally updating the list of apps installed on your mobile device so we can deliver tailored content that you might be interested in."
This seems like the next step in companies prying their way into every personal detail of someone's life. Yes there's an 'opt-out', but shouldn't it really be an 'opt-in'? And would you really trust an app that wants to track this information to honor the 'opt-out'? IMHO the best way to ensure Twitter doesn't track your apps (or more) is to not have the app installed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:47AM
Is there a systemd service that I can enable that will monitor for and disable this stuff that the Twitter app is doing?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:32AM
I have news. Android may run the Linux kernel, but it doesn't use systemd. And if you have a sane custom ROM, you can make use of the disabled App Privacy feature that should have been introduced with KitKat or the XPrivacy extension in the XPosed Framework (which sadly doesn't work with Lollipop yet). But me, I'd just rather not do business with folks who would pull this kind of stunt.
Which brings me to another point. Why would people go so far as to abandon Linux the kernel for BSD just because the major distros have plunged into systemd? If Debian has gotten tainted and enough people care the fork will really gain traction. Linux Mint was created because people disliked the direction Ubuntu was taking with their UI, and it appears to be doing well enough.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:48AM
Because Linux is kind of wild west and the other one mentioned just works? :p
(Score: 2) by emg on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:08PM
Just uninstall the deprecated Twitter app, and install systemd-twitter instead.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:51AM
Doesn't sound like something Apple would readily permit...just a naked data grab for marketing to resell...
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:48PM
Yeah... Apple wants this data all for themselves! And I'm surprised Google will allow it either for the exact same reason.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:10AM
Give change one more chance! For real this time, promise!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Wrong Turn Ahead on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:23AM
I really hope this encourages Google to just jail every app, or at least provide more granular controls to curb this kind of behavior.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:41AM
More reason for full virtualization of android "in the cloud" - run a separate VM for each app and then route the display to your phone with something along the lines of RDP/VNC. Let the "cloud" be on your home PC or an official cloud provider, you could even run VM's scattered around the net on multiple systems so that you've got tons of horsepower and multiple independent IP addresses. It would also mean the phone could be cheaper, don't need all that much horsepower on the phone just enough to be really fast at displaying RDP/VNC type bitmaps - maybe low-latency h265 decode in hardware for videos and any apps with lots of screen action.
(Score: 2) by arashi no garou on Thursday November 27 2014, @02:25PM
Yeah, that will work so well with 200 MB data caps!
Honestly, mobile data should be capless, but the sad reality is that we pay more for less on mobile than we ever did on dialup or slow DSL back in the 90s.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:03AM
Why would it encourage them to do that? Android exists as an advertising platform.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Thursday November 27 2014, @01:09PM
Or you could use Firefox OS (when a decent device comes out)
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:57PM
Rather jail the Twitter execs who are violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:26AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Fnord666 on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:44AM
I think the same could be said for both IOS and Windows Mobile. This isn't an android only issue. The problem is systemic and OS agnostic.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:01AM
I disabled an app, and now I am constantly pestered to re-enable the app so other apps can do neferious things that the app enabled would allow them to do. I also have ignored "security updates" from a manufacturer, because the entire, um, ecosystem? is so wrought with fraud and misrepresentation that a pedometer has to know who I am calling on the phone? Android users don't care, first because it is Google, and their motto is " Don't be evil", and second because they do not have control over their own device! Why cannot I delete the damn CityID or what the hell ever spawn of satan paid Google to have it default in Android? I mean, did I get Dell! Twitter does not surprise me. Nothing twitter can do will ever surprise me, because I (and you should, too) always go back to the Monty Python skit, "upper class twits". Evidently there is some kind of competition.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:27AM
o wrought with fraud and misrepresentation that a pedometer has to know who I am calling on the phone? Android users don't care,
Actually, there is a great deal of misunderstanding that leads people to believe that a pedometer has to know who you are calling.
Its all google's fault. They have lumped groups of access rights into bundles, and using any part of that bundle requires the application to notify you about using the whole bundle. That is flaw number one.
This is what one of the other posters referred to as the lack of fine grain controls.
In fact the pedometer does not know who you are calling. The pedometer probably has voice prompts. Those have to be suppressed when you are in a call.
So the App is responsible to monitor phone state to determine if it is allowed to make noise. That is flaw number two.
Ideally, Android would simply traffic-cop all attempts to make noise, instead of expecting each app to make that decision. I fundamental design flaw that Android inherited from its Linux roots.
Second misunderstanding: Android users DO CARE. They've been bitching about it for years.
Android had an improved permission system encoded in the development environment, but withdrew it, probably because it was a mess, and would break more things than it fixed. There are third party utilities that allow you to retroactively remove permissions, but you need to root your phone to use them.
And then your pedometer can announce right in the middle of your phone call, because you denied it access to phone state.
There are structural problems in android that really do need fixing.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Wrong Turn Ahead on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:47AM
I use Cyanogenmod, which came with something called Privacy Guard enabled by default (granular permissions). I'm not sure if it is the same code Google was testing but it seems to be largely useless. Increasingly, more apps are refusing to function until you grant them all the permissions they wanted initially. On a side note, the more technology advances, the less I want any of it...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday November 27 2014, @07:13AM
C'mon, frojack, I said "who I am calling", not "that I am calling". The need for my contact list, to measure what is going on with the accelerometer? It could be bad design, but we should never attribute to incompetence what is obviously by design and just frigging evil. This is the little know, but much more useful, Reverse Hanlon's Razor.
(Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:26AM
That I utterly refuse to have a thing to do with Twitter. The faster that shitheap burns ddown, the better it is for humanity
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday November 27 2014, @06:53AM
Is there anything in particular that makes them a worse shitheap than the rest of corporations?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @10:51AM
Yes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:42PM
Depends on what you consider "the rest of corporations" I'd guess.
Note that if "the rest of corporations" is taking literally, it also includes Soylent News.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @07:27AM
Cool story bro!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @02:52PM
Why do mobile app developers think they have the right to spy on its users?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @03:34PM
Because they do it both "on the internet" and "on a mobile device"
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:51PM
This is why I look for and use a third party app for the major social web sites. They are usally privisity aware and therefore don't do most of the nasty stuff.
I use Falcon Pro for twitter. http://getfalcon.pro/ [getfalcon.pro]
Tinfoil for Facebook. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.danvelazco.fbwrapper&hl=en [google.com]
Still looking for one for tumbler.
Any recommendations for other social web sites?
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Thursday November 27 2014, @04:56PM
Given the general quality of the content, shouldn't it be called "twitting"? #twitterhasnovalue #getoffmydevice
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday November 27 2014, @05:22PM
In the year 3000 YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have consolidated into one all-encompassing social media conglomerate known as YouTwitFace
-- paraphrased from some late-night comedy show
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 27 2014, @09:39PM
I just uninstalled the bundled twitter app from my android phonw, not that I ever ran it anyway. Way to go, twitter. They're obviously trying to catch up with f***book in terms of pure evil.