Privacy issues on Twitter and Instagram

Both, Twitter and Instagram admitted in the last week that they had some privacy issues regarding the personal data of users in connection with external advertising companies.

Twitter published a statement explaining that the setting choices the user made in regards to ads on Twitter, ecspecially regarding data sharing, were not followed always. Twitter admitted that the setting choices not have worked as intended. The consequence of which is that on the one hand maybe data was shared with advertising companies in case the user clicked or viewed an advertisement. On the other hand it is possible that personalized ads have been shown to the user based on inferences. Both things could have happened even if no permission was given.

The statement also states that the problems were fixed on August 5, 2019 and no personal data like passwords or email accounts were affected. At the moment Twitter is still investigating how many and which users were concerned.

According to a report on businessinsider Instagram had to admit that the trusted partner Hyp3r tracked millions of users’ location data, secretly saved their stories and flout its rules.  Hyp3r, a startup from San Francisco is spezialized on location related advertising and evaluated millions of users’ public stories. The CEO of Hyp3r published a note on the company’s website and contradicts the comparisons with Cambridge Analytica and says that no prohibited practives were used. Privacy is a major and important concern for the company. Whether this is the case can only be left open at this point. Be that as it may, for European users of the platform there is no known legal basis for such an approach.

Nonetheless, Instagram’s careless privacy and data security mechanisms enabled this approach. Even though Instagram ended the cooperation with Hyp3r and stated that they changed the platform to protect the users, the problems of the Facebook-owned app regarding the protection of users personal data are still there.