Twitter updates TOS and privacy policy to comply with GDPR

Twitter announced changes to its terms of service (TOS) and privacy policy in a blog post Tuesday morning. The post, titled “Continuing Our Commitments to Privacy & Transparency,” comes in advance of the May 25, 2018, deadline for complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The post was written by the company’s data protection officer, Damien Kieran. It’s the latest in a series of updates large enterprises are announcing to bring their operations into compliance with GDPR, a sweeping set of rules that mandate how entities handle European Union citizens’ data no matter where they reside. Organizations in breach of GDPR can be fined up to 4 percent of their annual global turnover or €20 million (whichever is greater). Twitter has updated its privacy policy to make it easier to manage personal information, the post says. The company has made it “visually clear and easy to use,” added a download button to get a plain text version and optimized it for mobile and web. The company has also added direct links throughout the policy to give users visibility into what personal data Twitter has about them, and gives them the ability to decide if they want to continue to share it.