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You can't DM someone that you don't follow. Twitter already exposes all the text of non-protected accounts to advertisers for their contextual ad products. 'Au
by hagbardgroup 12y ago
You can't DM someone that you don't follow. Twitter already exposes all the text of non-protected accounts to advertisers for their contextual ad products.
'Automated scans for tweets' are what Twitter already sells to advertisers. That's their entire ad product. Who you follow and what you talk about on your account are already used to target ads to your feed. @mentioning when you don't follow just dumps you into the non-default notifications tab, which users have to tap to 'all' to actually see.
You're totally correct that it's a privacy concern. It helps a little that Twitter doesn't have a real name policy. I am more concerned about the total lack of privacy in credit card transactions, because there is no way to opt out of that. In this case the user can at least opt out of sharing their transactions with the world. With credit cards we're all opted in to dumping our account data into a marketplace that can be easily connected to a real name.
- nivla 12y ago>You can't DM someone that you don't follow. Twitter already exposes all the text of non-protected accounts to advertisers for their contextual ad products. I agree but think about it this way. I follow Starbucks because I like them and visit them often. Now I see a link for discounted Starbucks coffee on Amazon and purchase them via twitter. Prior to that Starbucks had to make assumptions or run some machine algo on my tweets to determine: a) I am not a bot and b) My loyalty can or cannot be leveraged. However with this purchase, whenever they bring out a new flavor they could be certain with some confidence that I would make a purchase, thus messaging me personally or including me in one of their tweets. Its not necessarily a bad thing but history has it that convenience always has its price.