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369 points zeech | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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mindcrash ◴[] No.43804805[source]
Way back then I exposed massive data collection from Twitter by Google which made it possible to plot locations at which you used Twitter in Google Maps by simply putting your Twitter handle into the search field. Somehow they knew about these locations even when you opted out of sharing location data with Twitter (I checked) -- so this was only possible by Twitter privately providing this information to Google.

This "experiment" has since then been shut down, but exposing this and many other other forms of activism permanently has cost me my Twitter account, to the point that asking to reinstate it several times because I was permanently suspended for no valid reason led to X Support directly rerouting every attempt to appeal this decision into the digital trash can.

Let's say nothing surprises me anymore.

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hyperpape ◴[] No.43805056[source]
It's really indefensible to post this without linking to your research to show people what you found.
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1. mindcrash ◴[] No.43805180[source]
Believe it or not, I wrote about it on my now permanently suspended Twitter account.

Here is a remnant from someone who replied at the time:

https://xcancel.com/kpcuk/status/601451439215353857

By the way: somewhat later we (thanks to a group effort) figured out it wasn't "just" Chrome as mentioned, and this basically led to the strong assumption there was some serious data sharing involved.

And yes that screenshot from this person is 100% real; my pins for example were sprinkled all across Brighton in the UK near places with Wifi access (I recently went on a city trip there at the time), and my home town in the Netherlands.