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http://www.naturalnews.com/034356_tweets_surveillance_government.html

And there we have it. They're not even being subtle about it. Does anybody here care?

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Twitter, being a US company working on US territory, is subject to the Patriot Act anyway, so I don't see that anything is any different here.

I don't find this surprising at all. In fact, if I had bothered to ponder the matter beforehand, I would probably have expected it.

The USA is at least as paranoid and invasive now as at any time in it's past.

I struggle to understand the concept of broadcasting your thoughts to the public and then complaining about privacy, in much the same way as I struggle to understand the concept of people not liking to be "watched" by cameras when, if attacked in the street, they will gladly use the footage to catch the attackers. If you don't want to be seen or heard, stay at home and say nothing

If you do want to be seen and heard, go out in to society and act socially, don't incite racial hatred or bully people, don't plot to do criminal acts, and you will be free! "freedom" means you are free to do whatever you want within the limits of the law, and concepts like this change nothing.

To me, that reads like "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".

The favoured cry of politicians who wish to strip away your rights, under the guise of providing security.

I use Twitter. I work on the basis that I only tweet things I am happy to share with random strangers.

I use the Internet. I work on the basis that I only post things I am happy to share with random strangers.

Twitter is first and foremost a broadcast system, so they don't really need to "give" the US Government access, other than the amount of bandwidth that must burn... But direct messages "should" be private, but the (un)Patriot(ic) Act means that Twitter doesn't have a choice anyway - the same a cloud providers in general.

This is the main reason that using cloud services in Europe is a big no-no for most businesses, if they use an international cloud provider. If the cloud provider receives a request (not a court order) from the USG, they have to hand over your data, but they aren't allowed to inform you that the data has been handed to a third party, outside of Europe, which leaves YOU open to prosecution for "releasing" the data to a third party (even though you didn't, YOU are responsible for ensuring the data doesn't leave the EU / isn't seen by a third party outside the EU*).

* Inside the EU there are rules in place which restrict this distribution anyway, which have to be followed and at least the authorities here can only access the data with a court order.

There are changes afoot to change the EU law, to make the Americans more responsible for their actions - holding the cloud providers liable for "leaking" the data would be a good start!

Isn't "Twitter Privacy" an Oxymoron

I dont tweet but always assumed it was the IT equivalent of standing on a roof top with a megaphone shouting about your own pet hates / likes / pecadillos

Completely agree with both comments which is why I never use Twitter. I am, simply, not a twit!

Pretty much thought that would be the case. I realize nothing on the internet is "private", but this struck me as a somewhat bold and blatant move. Clearly everyone's first retort is how they don't publish anything on the internet that they don't mind people knowing. But how is a person to know what years of daily comments on a variety of things will tell somebody who's intent on building information about them? Long sentence I know, but I've had a few glasses of wine

And with the sun barely over the yardarm!

I have generally been very circumspect about what I post online. If someone really wants to collate the tens of thousands of idle twitting I've been responsible for in order to build some coherent picture of me and my personality, so be it. I guess I could delete my tweets, or close my account, but the information will probably still be there to mined.

I worry that the tech savvy among us realise the possibilities, and make allowances for being spied on, but most of the population blithely spill their lives into Facebook without a second thought.

Actually, I don't worry about it at all. More fool them.

I kind of feel sorry for the people who end up having to read all of the nonsense on FB and Twitter as part of their job. Their brains will be mush.

It isn't a coincidence, I happen to agree with the government, as soon as they start encroaching on my legal rights, that's when I'll kick up a fuss. Seeing as I don't smash up bus stops or incite looting, I have nothing to hide, look at me all you want, I'm boring. Please keep an eye on those "interesting" people over there selling cocaine to teenagers.

I can imagine the next headline:
"US Agents take own lives in preference to dealing with the banality that is Twitter"