For nearly two decades, Twitter has reigned as the leader in the microblogging space, but it now appears to be facing real competition from Threads, which has seen rapid growth. But media reports about Threads violating users' privacy have raised concerns.
What is the real truth, though? Is Threads genuinely worse than Twitter when it comes to privacy and cybersecurity, or is it simply facing more scrutiny due to being owned by a company that does not have a great reputation?
Twitter and Privacy: What You Need to Know
Let's begin with Twitter. For a start, Twitter has a fairly straightforward, interactive, and easy-to-read privacy policy. This is praiseworthy, because many companies nowadays seem to deliberately obscure their privacy policies, employing a lot of legalese and making it nearly impossible for the average person to comprehend how much data they are being asked to surrender.
But content is more important than presentation. How much data does Twitter collect? To begin with, the data Twitter collects from users can be split into three distinct categories: information users themselves provide, information that is gathered from them, and information obtained from third parties.
In order to create an account on Twitter in the first place, you are required to provide some personal information. You need to create a display name and set up a password, and verify your account using your email or phone number. You also have to share your date of birth, and can choose whether to share location information. Professional accounts might need to provide additional info, while those who purchase ads and other services obviously need to share payment info as well.
When it comes to data that is being gathered from users about their activity, the list is too long. But let's say that pretty much everything you do on Twitter is recorded and stored: your retweets, likes, direct messages (including the contents of the message), replies, mentions, interactions with links posted on the platform, and so on. Twitter also gathers a lot of technical data, such as information about your IP address and browser, device, and operating system.
Notably, Twitter also states in its privacy policy that it collects information that can be used to "infer your identity." That's to say, even if you are not logged into your account when browsing Twitter, the platform will try to make an educated guess about who you are, and connect the information it gathered to the data it had already stored about you.
In most privacy policies, the term "third parties" is pretty broad. In Twitter's case, it refers to advertising partners, publishers, developers, other Twitter users, affiliates, and partners. These also collect information about you, and share it with Twitter. So, for example, if you connect your account with another service or app, that entity might share the data it gathers with Twitter.
Lastly, there are things you can do to enhance your privacy on Twitter, but your options are limited.
What Does Threads Know About You?
To really understand how much data Threads collects, we need to look at two privacy policies: the one that applies to most Meta Platforms' products, and the Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.
As a reminder, Meta also owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, among other products and services. In its rather exhaustive privacy policy, the company breaks down how much data it gathers, how, and for what purposes.
It would be impossible to cover every detail in a brief summary, but suffice to say that Meta knows just about everything that it realistically can know about those who use its products and services. Even those who don't are not exempt from this, because Meta acknowledges it may "collect some information about you even if you don't have an account."
It goes without saying that Meta products track your IP address, but the company also gathers other information about your device, operating system, and about how you use Meta apps. Meta knows if your mouse is moving, collects info about your network connection, knows your location (even if Location Services are turned off), and may have access to your camera and photos.
Meta apps don't just gather data about you, but also about your friends, followers, and contacts. For example, if you sync the address book on your phone with a Meta app, the tech giant automatically collects information about your contacts. It further stores all kinds of data about your posts (including metadata), messages, and other content that you share and upload to its platforms.
Meta also receives info about you from various third parties, which includes marketing vendors, partners, and other affiliates. So, for instance, the company may learn about the games you play and websites you visit through social plugins and pixels. It also records how you interact with advertisements, and may even get data about your demographics.
The Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy is a lot shorter, but it does contain some valuable insights. It says that all data gathered via Threads is cross-referenced with information Meta already has about you, provided that you use other Meta products—and you can't use Threads without creating an account on Instagram.
The same document states that you cannot delete your Threads account without deleting Instagram, which is definitely something to keep in mind. You can deactivate it, however, just like you can request a deletion of your Threads information through Instagram settings. It's also worth noting that the extent of data gathering, as well as your rights in the online space, may vary depending on the country or region you are from.
Is Threads More Private Than Twitter?
After taking a careful look at how Twitter and Threads treat their users, the real question is: which of these two apps is better for your privacy? The real answer, then, is neither. But if you had to use one, it appears as though Twitter is slightly less invasive.
This might change in the near future, and it's difficult to tell where Elon Musk is taking Twitter, but if you actually want to guard your data from big tech while participating in online discussions, you should consider joining other platforms.
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