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How to Opt Out of Twitter's New Privacy Settings

88 points by DiabloD3 9y ago

fgrimes 9y ago
Done. But looking at the individual settings made me chuckle. Is this supposed to be bad? Twitter could sure learn a lot from Facebook (and others) about how to be evil. Try harder, guys--you're not even approaching a 2 on the Orwellian scale.
notum 9y ago
Twitter seems to have changed that button into "Sounds good, review", which brings you to the settings page where not everything is checked. Personalization and data setting was off by default for me. They may not know how to make money but they sure do extinguish fires quickly.
- nkozyra 9y ago
  > They may not know how to make money but they sure do extinguish fires quickly. In fact, those things may be connected.
tedivm 9y ago
One of the things this mentions is that you can view what data Twitter has on you already, and viewing it has remarkably entertaining for just how bad their data is. * I am apparently between the age of 13 and 55. They've really narrowed that down. * I'm a male (the only accurate thing on here). * I'm a corporate mom who is interested in eco friendly vehicles as well as full size SUVs. * I own a domestic car, a luxury domestic vehicle and an imported luxury vehicle. * I am looking to purchase three different types of vehicles. * I am a senior citizen. * I'm a millennial. * I'm in generation x. * My income is 125k, but my discretionary spending is $200k. If this is really what they're sharing and how they're targeting their advertising then I've grossly overestimated their ability to datamine.
- marak830 9y ago
  Is that because of the auto opt out(note I heard it was automatic, one of the browsers? Too busy to research properly atm sorry)?
a_imho 9y ago
It would be nice to have a plain text description of the privacy policies and visual diffs of the changes.
breakingcups 9y ago
You know, I've been looking at the Twitter settings and, compared to some other internet behemoths, it actually doesn't seem that bad. At least they are communicating clearly about everything they do and allow all opt-outs. Thanks to the comment in this thread I went to https://twitter.com/settings/your_twitter_data https://twitter.com/settings/your_twitter_data and got the list of advertiser data and it's actually a bit enlightening. A cross-platform standard could still be better of course.
- scalio 9y ago
  The thing that stood out to me was the 'Disable all' button. I don't know how that compares to other platforms, but it's a good feature to have.
dredmorbius 9y ago
Is there a host list (or better, CIDR range) that can be blocked to avoid this nonsense?
- scalio 9y ago
  You can only prevent entire java script files from reaching your browser by blocking domains, which is not helpful when js is required for functionality. I use umatrix and noscript. Both are set to block by default and tediously kept updated. Google has recently started undermining my efforts on YouTube by sending ads over the same connections as actual video data. The shitty truth is that at the moment, there are no practical ways for the end user to properly manage the execution of other people's code on their machines that happens through app stores and browsers (including binaries downloaded with them).
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    On Android, uMatrix / uBlock aren't available for Chrome. I make heavy use of a router-based blocklist. Otherwise, food for thought: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6bgowu/what_if_the_web_was_filesystemaccessible/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6bgowu/what_if...
    - scalio 9y ago
      Check out ipfs.io
      - dredmorbius 9y ago
        Familiar with it. Swear I'd already included it as an extant system, though apparently not. Thanks!
- fulafel 9y ago
  https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/TWITT/nets https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/TWITT/nets

88 points by DiabloD3 9y ago

Done. But looking at the individual settings made me chuckle. Is this supposed to be bad? Twitter could sure learn a lot from Facebook (and others) about how to be evil. Try harder, guys--you're not even approaching a 2 on the Orwellian scale.

notum 9y ago

Twitter seems to have changed that button into "Sounds good, review", which brings you to the settings page where not everything is checked. Personalization and data setting was off by default for me. They may not know how to make money but they sure do extinguish fires quickly.

nkozyra 9y ago
> They may not know how to make money but they sure do extinguish fires quickly. In fact, those things may be connected.

tedivm 9y ago

One of the things this mentions is that you can view what data Twitter has on you already, and viewing it has remarkably entertaining for just how bad their data is. * I am apparently between the age of 13 and 55. They've really narrowed that down. * I'm a male (the only accurate thing on here). * I'm a corporate mom who is interested in eco friendly vehicles as well as full size SUVs. * I own a domestic car, a luxury domestic vehicle and an imported luxury vehicle. * I am looking to purchase three different types of vehicles. * I am a senior citizen. * I'm a millennial. * I'm in generation x. * My income is 125k, but my discretionary spending is $200k. If this is really what they're sharing and how they're targeting their advertising then I've grossly overestimated their ability to datamine.

marak830 9y ago
Is that because of the auto opt out(note I heard it was automatic, one of the browsers? Too busy to research properly atm sorry)?

a_imho 9y ago

It would be nice to have a plain text description of the privacy policies and visual diffs of the changes.

breakingcups 9y ago

You know, I've been looking at the Twitter settings and, compared to some other internet behemoths, it actually doesn't seem that bad. At least they are communicating clearly about everything they do and allow all opt-outs. Thanks to the comment in this thread I went to https://twitter.com/settings/your_twitter_data https://twitter.com/settings/your_twitter_data and got the list of advertiser data and it's actually a bit enlightening. A cross-platform standard could still be better of course.

scalio 9y ago
The thing that stood out to me was the 'Disable all' button. I don't know how that compares to other platforms, but it's a good feature to have.

dredmorbius 9y ago

Is there a host list (or better, CIDR range) that can be blocked to avoid this nonsense?

scalio 9y ago
You can only prevent entire java script files from reaching your browser by blocking domains, which is not helpful when js is required for functionality. I use umatrix and noscript. Both are set to block by default and tediously kept updated. Google has recently started undermining my efforts on YouTube by sending ads over the same connections as actual video data. The shitty truth is that at the moment, there are no practical ways for the end user to properly manage the execution of other people's code on their machines that happens through app stores and browsers (including binaries downloaded with them).
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  On Android, uMatrix / uBlock aren't available for Chrome. I make heavy use of a router-based blocklist. Otherwise, food for thought: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6bgowu/what_if_the_web_was_filesystemaccessible/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6bgowu/what_if...
  - scalio 9y ago
    Check out ipfs.io
    - dredmorbius 9y ago
      Familiar with it. Swear I'd already included it as an extant system, though apparently not. Thanks!
fulafel 9y ago
https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/TWITT/nets https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/TWITT/nets