Data Collected by Twitter and Threads
— In anticipation to the release of Threads, Facebook’s Twitter competitor, Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder, former chief executive, posted a screenshot of Thread’s data-privacy statement from Apple App Store, alongside the smug comment “All your Threads are belong to us”. To which Musk replies “Yeah.”
I find it hard to believe that Twitter is any more privacy-friendly than Facebook, after all both companies rely on detailed user information to sell targeted ads. It’s in their business model. So let’s compare the privacy statements of both both apps, Threads and Twitter, as posted on Apple App Store.
Data Used to Track You
Threads does not provide this information.
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | x | |
| Location | x | |
| Contact info | x | |
| User Content | x | |
| Browsing history | x | |
| Identifiers | x | |
| Usage Data | x |
Data Linked to You
Third-party advertising
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | x | x |
| Financial info | x | |
| Location | x | x |
| Contact info | x | x |
| Contacts | x | |
| User Content | x | |
| Search history | x | |
| Browsing history | x | x |
| Identifiers | x | x |
| Usage Data | x | x |
| Diagnostics | x | x |
| Other data | x |
Developer’s Advertising or Marketing
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | x | x |
| Financial info | x | |
| Location | x | x |
| Contact info | x | x |
| Contacts | x | |
| User Content | x | x |
| Browsing history | x | x |
| Search history | x | |
| Identifiers | x | x |
| Usage Data | x | x |
| Diagnostics | x | x |
| Other data | x |
Analytics
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Health & Fitness | x | |
| Purchases | x | x |
| Financial info | x | |
| Location | x | x |
| Contact info | x | |
| Contacts | x | x |
| User Content | x | x |
| Search history | x | x |
| Browsing history | x | x |
| Identifiers | x | x |
| Usage Data | x | x |
| Sensitive info | x | |
| Diagnostics | x | x |
| Other data | x |
Product Personalisation
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | x | x |
| Financial info | x | |
| Location | x | x |
| Contact info | x | x |
| Contacts | x | x |
| User Content | x | x |
| Search history | x | x |
| Browsing history | x | x |
| Identifiers | x | x |
| Usage Data | x | x |
| Sensitive info | x | |
| Diagnostics | x | |
| Other data | x |
App functionality
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Health & Fitness | x | |
| Purchases | x | x |
| Financial info | x | |
| Location | x | x |
| Contact info | x | x |
| Contacts | x | x |
| User Content | x | x |
| Search history | x | |
| Browsing history | x | x |
| Identifiers | x | x |
| Usage Data | x | x |
| Sensitive info | x | |
| Diagnostics | x | x |
| Other data | x |
Other purposes
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Purchases | x | |
| Financial info | x | |
| Location | x | x |
| Contact info | x | x |
| Contacts | x | x |
| User Content | x | x |
| Search history | x | x |
| Browsing history | x | |
| Identifiers | x | x |
| Usage Data | x | |
| Diagnostics | x | |
| Other data | x |
Data Not Linked to You
Third-Party Advertising
Threads does not provide this information.
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Other data | x |
Developer’s Advertising or Marketing
Threads does not provide this information.
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Other data | x |
Analytics
Threads does not provide this information.
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| User content | x | |
| Other data | x |
App Functionality
Threads does not provide this information.
| Threads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Contact Info | x | |
| User content | x | |
| Other data | x |
It’s true that Threads collects more information about you, including what feels like more sensitive data, like financial information, health and fitness data, and whatever is behind “Sensitive Info.” It really does look like the Facebook lawyers ticked all of the boxes when they submitted Threads to the app store; just in case, it allows them to move faster and break more things.
But the list of data shared by Twitter is very long too. Dorsey and Musk aren’t in a position to point fingers at anyone when in regards to personal-data collection and sharing. That’s not to defend Facebook’s Threads—they are both equally data-hungry apps.