A pair of House Republicans have sent Twitter a letter
praising the company for supporting "do not track" browser
functionality, but also seeking more information on that promise as well as
what info it collects when it does track.
"We applaud Twitter's move to protect consumer privacy
and believe their voluntary approach to 'Do-Not-Track' is one that other companies should
follow," Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), co-chair of the House Privacy Caucus,
and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said in the letter.
"However, we would like to inquire about the data collection and practices
regarding Twitter's experiments to provide tailored suggestions to its users."
That tailoring will include showing a list of recommended
accounts and some of their tweets according to user relevance.
Among the questions the legislators want answered by June 15
are:
- "[O]n a mobile device, how does Twitter provide a
consumer with the choice to opt-out of being tracked online to provide tailored
suggestions to the user? Would Twitter honor the 'Do-Not-Track' request of a
user across all platforms? - Under what circumstances does Twitter retain data after users request its
deletion? - How might consumers benefit from such retention?"
They also want to know what personally identifiable
information Twitter collects and how it collects and stores it.
