The Data We Don’t See

Consumers are unaware of the amount of information companies collect on them.

For most people, they probably think “…who cares? What would they even want to know about me?” And it makes sense, as people often disconnect themselves from their physical actions and actions taken online.

In reality, companies want you to feel this way, as the more you let them in through the promise of ease and usability, the more information they can collect about your habits, demographics, and interests.

Let's dive into X (formerly Twitter) and see how this company handles personal data, and why its important to know what kinds of information these brands like to collect.

Twitter’s Privacy Policy

Diving into Twitter’s privacy policy, we see that overall, the site tries to be transparent about everything that they collect, having a custom landing page that attempts to break down everything that they do into simple terms.

This is a great way to break down a document as long and complicated as a privacy policy, as it gives links to learn more about the kind of data Twitter collects, the services it provides with it, and the ability to see how to change or adjust your setting to limit the data you send.

Not all companies are like this, though. Most throw you a massive PDF document that you need to scroll through in order to find the section you are looking for. This benefits the company as it helps to obscure the information they collect and how it is used. TikTok is one where there is a big pile of information, with little hyperlinks on the side to “assist” you to find what you want, otherwise it is a massive document to scroll through.

Looking at the data Twitter collects, it reveals how much they know about us. Personally identifiable information is collected, which means that the platform knows who we are and can corralate the actions we do to us specifically, instead of being annoymous data.

Geolocation data is also collected, meaning that location data can be collected when posting, as well as when using the app to serve relevant ads.

Lastly, app interactions, behaviors and usage are collected for analytics and advertiser tracking, along with (most concerningly) biometric and health data as well.

Health data is one of the most alarming out of the bunch here, meaning that Twitter is trying to collect information about us even beyond our interaction on the app, to how we feel and react, potentially using your height, weight or even heart rate to learn more about you.

What they do with it

One of the core things that Twitter does is collect it for advertiser use. Twitter has a reasonably robust Ad manager, allowing anyone with a message or product to promote and target those who fit the right demographics.

Much of the data Twitter collects aims to grow this pool and rival companies like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, along with giants like Google.

This data also goes to improve the app itself, allowing Twitter to understand user behavior better so its own algorithms are more accurate and can find areas where people are running into problems.

However, all of this means that Twitter often shares your data with third parties, going to people that you don’t know and haven’t given access to see your personal information.

Luckily, you are able to opt in and out of data collection on the platform once you sign up and can easily limit the amount of data collected if it feels like too much.

This is, however, the extent that Twitter shares your data, as they do not sell any information, and if you want to delete your account, all of the data associated with you goes with it.

Twitter is far from the worst offenders out there, but users need to be aware of the kind of data they are sharing when they sign up for a new site. Every action can be used to market to you, and can be traced back to you as well.

So next time, keep a look out of the information you favorite app collects, and be weary of the affects it can have on you.