Twitter Privacy Problems

HISTORY

Twitter, is a free micro-blogging service that is rapidly becoming one of the most popular social networking tools in use today. The brain wave of founder Jack Dorsey, it is an idea so simple, and informative, that its no wonder it was funded by Obvious in March, and launched publically in August of 2006. Less then a year later in May of 2007 Twitter was incorporated and founded.[|1]. Its a tool created with the sole purpose of allowing its users to update friends and followers as to their on going daily lives. In short, to stay connected. Twitter’s core technology is based on an agnostic messaging system that consists of base line social networking features. It accepts messages from a variety of sources including the web, mobile web, sms and instant messages. On twitter, such sent messages are known as tweets. [|2]

IMPACT

From president Barrack Obama [|3] who used this social networking tool in his election campaign, to your neighbour next door, the use of twitter has skyrocketed. No matter who is using twitter, the result is the same, its rapidly bringing people from all walks of life together. Messages sent on it can be as simple as “going for a walk”, or they can inform followers as to a person’s exact location, who their with, what there doing. In one case, basketball player Shaq posted his lunch location on his twitter site and, when a half hour later, he felt that a few fans were near he sent the following message, “I feel twitterers around me, r there any twitterers in 5 n diner wit me, say something” Another example where twitter is bringing people together took place in over 170 cities in various countries in the world on the 12th of February 2009. Twitter users met up at an event known as Twestival to raise money for charity.

One negative impact of Twitter is the fact that it decreases our face-to-face contact with other people. The same concept as text messaging, why meet some one for coffee and catch up when you can simply tweet them an update on your life. Another is the fact that for many people social networking sites like twitter and Facebook can become an addiction. However this micro-blogging site has in a sense been a part of a trend towards cultural globalization. It is a communication tool that allows rapid information transfer between parties. Research conducted by the New Scientist in May of 2008 found that in some emergencies, like the shootings at Virginia Tech, twitter was actually a faster communication device then traditional news services. In another case, Twitter was used to inform followers as about the spread of wildfires in October of 2007 in California. It’s simple service in this case allowed Twitterer’s accurate updates as to the wildfire locations. [|4]

PRIVACY ISSUES

Many people do not pay attention to privacy policies of social networking websites, and therefore forget to set those privacy settings. Without choosing specific settings, Twitter has permission to sell private information from their clients to third party companies, such as marketing firms [|5]. A privacy issue that Twitter has had to deal with is the breeching of security. There have been numerous accounts on Twitter that have had their private messages displayed for public view by mistake--usually explicit [|6].Twitter has also been the victim of "dictionary-attacks", where high-profile accounts were hacked and had listed inappropriate statues. Profiles of Barrack Obama, Britney Spears, and Rick Sanchez were a few of the profiles affected [|7].



ETHICS

There are many ethical issues surrounding Twitter. There are many companies that have had to ban the use of Twitter at work due to bad work ethic. Employees were spending too much time on Twitter sending messages, updating statuses, or essentially--tweeting. This was affecting productivity in a highly negative way [|4]. Another ethical issue that Twitter has had to deal with is it's effect on people's careers. There was a recorded incident where Twitter actually ruined a Jury trial by violating the judge’s instructions by "tweeting" during the trial. "The sending of information is wreaking havoc on trials around the United States"[|8]. Also, Twitter is affecting whether or not people can keep their jobs. There have been many cases where employees were fired after finding inappropriate statuses concerning work. Helen Popkin from msnbc.com says "Never post anything you wouldn't say to your mom, boss, or significant other--Thanks to twitter further eroding the wall between your big mouth and a moment required to download some good sense, the internet is now empowered to get you fired faster than ever [|9].

STATISTICS

Twitter has risen in popularity over the past year from the 22nd most popular social networking website to being 3rd most popular as of February 2009. Currently Twitter experiences 54 million visits to its site every month each one averaging around ten minutes a session. Of those 54 million visits there are approximately 7 million unique users. 53 percent are female. Roughly 39 percent of online adults between the ages of 18 and 34 have used or own a twitter account. Similarly twitter appears to be popular to an older crowd, with 42 percent of adults between 35 and 49 using this micro blogging account.

In the last year alone twitters popularity has increased dramatically, going from 475,000 users, to 7 million. In accordance with this, twitter has been the fastest growing networking site in all of February. One contributing factor to Twitters success is its easy access to mobile phones. Businesses are starting to realize how useful twitter is as an alternative advertisement method. Many brand name companies are now using twitter for advertising purposes.



This is a graph that shows the hourly trends of twitter users. Clearly, the majority of people "Tweet" others at the end of the work day, typically between 4pm and 7pm.

The popular i-phone for example has added applications to enhance the twitter experience, including for its users Twittericfic, Tweeie, and Twitterlator. Companies such as Google and Dell, use twitter to inform people regarding updates of what they are working on, and new ideas or launches they plan for in the future. There are talks of Google trying to buy the company for an estimated 250 million dollars. It has a way of telling us news even faster than the news can report it. The reason for its rapid growth in popularity is because it is an amazing and simple for people to communicate.

NOTES References

1. http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/06/technology/true_meaning_of_twitter_lashinsky.fortune/index.htm

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

3. http://twitter.com/BarackObam

4. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080502.WBmingram20080502170858/WBStory/WBmingram . http://twitter.com/privacy

5. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/28/dmfail-another-reason-to-just-not-send-private-messages-on-twitter/

6. http://www.bloggersblog.com/cgi-bin/bloggersblog.pl?bblog=106091

7. http://www.gaebler.com/economist-blames-twitter-for-down-economy.htm

8. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18juries.html?scp=4&sq=Twitter%20Ruins%20Jury%20Trials&st=cse

9. http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/03/23/2585749-twitter-gets-you-fired-in-140-characters-or-less