Manage updates with the Download AppTwitter wants your contacts, smartphone data Video
Twitter wants your contacts, smartphone data Video Transcript
Download the Twitter app to your smart phone and get ready to share more than your tweets. Once you agree to find friends, Twitter starts collecting your personal information. When you use the application in order to match you with other people who might be using, your address book goes up to the server. Besides your contact's names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, Twitter records browsing history and search terms. What Twitter wasn't telling people that whether they were keeping that address book for 18 months. It's been a long time to keep all your personal data. In an e-mail to the Los Angles Times, Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said "We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users. Along those lines in our next app updates which are coming soon, we are updating the languages associated with Find Friends to be more explicit." CNET's (Ray Middleton?) says Twitter however is not alone. All the social companies are doing this. Some of them tell you, some of them don't. Should we be concerned yet. The reaction from Twitter users in Downtown San Francisco was next. I was wondering about like where the information was gonna go, whatever use it's gonna have. I figured you've been. you better (get?) to the fact that you don't have any privacy. I don't think I'm very uncomfortable with that because if that's something I wanna share then I don't mind sharing it. Because of public and governmental pressure, most apps being written now or updated like Twitter will allow users to authorize or opt out of sharing personal information. In San Francisco, I'm Cara Savoy, CNET.com for CBS News
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