Police in Bochum investigate following suspicious incident on X
In the digital age, online privacy and data security are paramount concerns for users. This is particularly true for platforms like X, which was formerly known as Twitter. X collects a variety of data beyond just user-entered content, and it uses this data for multiple purposes including business, safety, compliance, and product development.
**Data Collection by X:**
X collects a wide range of data, including user profiles, tweets and metadata, search data, usage data, and aggregated, pseudonymized, and de-identified data. User profiles contain information such as username, display name, follower/following counts, bio, location, and account verification status. Tweets and their associated metadata, like timestamps, likes, retweets, media attachments, and conversation threads, are also collected.
**How X Uses the Data:**
The collected data is used for various purposes. For instance, it is used to develop and improve product features, including training AI models to enhance the service. X also uses data to investigate security incidents, potential misuse, and to comply with legal obligations. Researchers can access datasets to study social behaviour, communication patterns, or public discourse.
**Data Collection Methods and Access:**
X provides APIs, including those for academic research, to access real-time and historical tweets and associated metadata, with restrictions on sharing full tweet content directly. Third-party tools and scrapers can legally collect publicly available data, respecting ethical guidelines and X's policies.
**Privacy and Ethical Considerations:**
X advises respecting user privacy by complying with API terms, rate limits, and avoiding scraping private or login-protected data without permission. Users can request deletion of private chat content, which is queued for deletion up to 30 days.
It's important to note that the details of how X uses the data are not entirely clear. However, X does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about personal data from the statistics provided to the police account.
**User Control and Transparency:**
Logged-in users can choose whether their User Content is used for product development and AI training. X's data usage guidelines can be found at https://www.x.com/privacy/.
In summary, X collects extensive data encompassing user-generated content, profile information, and behavioural analytics. This data supports product development, AI training, safety monitoring, compliance, and research, with users having some control over how their data is used for AI model training if logged in. This approach balances service improvement with privacy and legal compliance.
X uses the collected data for entertainment purposes by providing a platform for users to share and consume various forms of content, such as tweets, videos, and images. Additionally, the data is utilized to enhance the overall user experience on the social-media platform by improving product features and recommendations.
