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back to article Twitter to serve unsolicited ads in Facebook style

Twitter is to start pushing adverts from companies which Twitter users are not following into their tweet streams, but only ones it has decided they will be interested in: so that's OK then. At the moment, Twitter only pushes adverts into a user's stream of tweets if the Twitter user has signed up to "follow" the company …

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  1. Robert E A Harvey

    oh well

    Unsubscribe.

    Delete account.

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    1. Graham Marsden
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      @oh well

      I'm one up on you since I didn't even have a Twatter account to unsubscribe in the first place :-)

      2 0
  2. Wile E. Veteran

    How long before somebody...

    Comes out with a Twitter client that contains functionality like AdBlock+ or the GMail Ads Remover plugins for Firefox. I would guess it won't be long.

    2 0
  3. semprance

    rgdsgdfgdfg

    It would be relatively simple. If you think about it your Twitter feed is just the public timeline with your following filter applied (i.e. filtered so that only those selected people appear). All you have to do is implement this manually in your Twitter client by checking that each tweet's owner is in your followers list.

    On the other hand, the chances that Twitter won't consider this a violation of their API conditions (which I imagine are being rewritten as we comment) are very slim...

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    1. Andrew Woodvine
      Reply Icon

      Read the article

      "the ads will only appear on the Twitter.com website (as opposed to being pushed out to those using client applications)"

      1 1
  4. ChrisInBelgium
    Thumb Down

    For now

    If you read between the lines, you might as well add " for now" to the line ...only appear on the Twitter.com website...

    Well, if it ever arrives on my mobile twitter client, goodbye and thanks for all the fish!

    1 0
  5. Derichleau
    Holmes

    Is the DPA98 any use here?

    Section 11 of the DPA98 allows UK data subjects to request that an organisation ceases processing their personal data for direct marketing purposes. The ICO deem all online advertising appearing within a data subject's logged-in pages to constitute direct marketing. If Twitter were a UK-based company we could excercise our right under section 11 and ask them to remove the advertising from our accounts; failure to respond to such a request could result in criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement or audit against Twitter.

    So what happens if I exercise my right on Twitter? Will they comply bearing in mind that they're a US company?

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