Twitter Removes Privacy Option, and Shows Why We Need Strong Privacy Laws

Twitter greeted its users with a confusing notification this week. “The control you have over what information Twitter shares with its business partners has changed,” it said.

Previously, anyone in the world could opt out of Twitter’s conversion tracking (type 1), and people in GDPR-compliant regions had to opt in. Now, people outside of Europe have lost that option.

For people protected by GDPR, type-1 data sharing remains opt-in, and type 2—Twitter sharing their data with Google and Facebook—never happens at all.