In June of this year, Twitter simplified its rules on safety, privacy, and authenticity to make them easier to understand for readers. Today, the company launched the Twitter Privacy Center to provide more transparency around its data protection methods.
Kayvon Beykpour, Product Lead at Twitter and Co-Founder of Periscope, and Damien Kieran, Twitter's Data Protection Officer, wrote in a blog post that the new service will be the central hub for Twitter's related initiatives, announcements, new privacy products, and communication for security incidents. In addition, it should make it easier for users to learn what data Twitter collects, how it uses that data, and what controls users have.
Already, Twitter has shared new updates to its privacy policy through the privacy center and these changes will take effect on January 1, 2020. Reuters reports that the new policy is in compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act, requiring large companies to provide consumers more transparency and control over their personal information.
Those changes include the transfer of accounts of users outside of the United States and European Union from Twitter International Company, based in Dublin, Ireland, to San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. The goal is to be flexible in terms of testing new features and settings, some of which may violate Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Beykpour and Kieran also admitted that Twitter's privacy and data protection practices are not perfect, but promised that they are evolving to secure user data and keep the company accountable.
