The social website announced some changes for non-US users

Apr 18, 2015 07:37 GMT  ·  By

Given that Europe is currently working on implementing stricter guidelines regarding the way American companies handle users’ personal data, Twitter also considered it was time to bring about some changes to its privacy policy.

The social website announced in an official blog that, for those living outside of the US, the services would be provided by Twitter International Company, the headquarters located in Dublin, now considered the social media capital of Europe.

Reportedly set up to avoid taxes because of Ireland’s favorable tax regime, the European offices will now become the perfect place to ensure that the account information for non-US users is perfectly safe and abides by EU’s directives.

Europe has emphasized the importance of data protection, stating that its citizens must first give their permission before any personal data is shared with third-parties.

It has been reported that the European Union is even trying to bring forward the right to be forgotten, the concept according to which individuals have the right to demand that any kind of private data pertaining to them be removed from the Internet.

EU’s General Data Protection Regulation is seeking to lessen the control that American companies have over their users’ personal details.

Bad news for American Twitter users

Unfortunately for US users, no changes have been implemented regarding the consumers’ private data, since American accounts continue to operate under the offices located in San Francisco, California, meaning that they have to comply with the US law, which happens to be way more permissive when it comes to handling user data.

Twitter was expected to make some changes, given that Europeans represent more than three quarters of the total number of users, an impressive number of 300 million users that the social networking site cannot afford to lose.

Europe is well known for its cookie policy, which clearly states that users cannot have cookies installed on their computers without their permission. The EU’s cookie notification policy costs billions of euros a year, all to make sure that the population’s data is perfectly safe.

The changes apply to all Twitter services, including Digits and Periscope.

Twitter also revealed that the reason behind this change was its desire to improve the support towards all users in light of their global expansion, "The changes to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy indicate this expansion and better reflect how we’re providing our services to users."