Monday, September 17, 2012

Twitter sings like a canary — and we all lose

You know that blue bird Twitter uses as its mascot? Turns out it’s really a stool pigeon. Two days ago, Twitter agreed to hand over the tweets and other information of one of its users to a New York municipal court.

To be fair to Twitter, the social network made a concerted effort to keep Malcolm Harris’ records private, going further than most companies would to protect user privacy and — more to the point — absolve itself of the responsibility for what its users say.

[ Has Twitter changed its song? Check out Cringely’s post “You have the right to remain silent on Twitter” and decide for yourself. | For a humorous take on tech industry shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld’s Tech Watch blog. ]

In the end, Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. threatened to paw through the last two quarters of Twitter’s private financial statements to come up with a fine large enough to sting. Twitter relented.

Keep reading…

Read also:

Twitter Gives Occupy Wall Street Protester's Tweets to Judge (Wall Street & Technology)

Twitter Hands Over Account Info of Occupy Protester (Democracy Now)

Punch to user privacy as Twitter surrenders Occupy protester's tweets (Network World)

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