Is Twopcharts safe? Concerns raised over privacy of site showing Twitter social circle

It is unclear to potential users exactly what data Twopcharts gathers, or how that data is used

The Twitter logo is seen on a phone in this photo illustration in Washington, DC, on July 10, 2019 (AFP/Getty)

Many users on Twitter are making use of a new tool called Twopcharts which shows them the accounts they have most interacted with on the social media site.

The website, which requires users to sign in with their Twitter account, lets people see their following and follower history, how long a user has spent on Twitter, and how active they are on Twitter.

Users have been posting images of their most interacted accounts, provided by Twopcharts, on Twitter.

However, others have raised concerns about the access users have to hand over in order to get that data.

Moreover, Twopcharts does not have easily accessible Terms and Conditions or Cookies policy on its website. To access its privacy policy, users must first sign up to the site.

As such, it is unclear to potential users how Twopcharts is using the data it allows it access to.

What is Twopcharts?

Twopcharts offers stats and data about how people have used their Twitter accounts.

It also allows users to get information about other Twitter accounts.

Opening a temporary Twitter profile, signing up to Twopcharts, and searching a Twitter account brings up data about the average number of times a user tweeted and when they were tweeted, broken down into a tweets-per-hour graph.

It can also let users see who has followed them, and who they are following, over time.

Twopcharts offers an “Interaction Overview.” At time of writing, that overview would take 198 minutes for Twopcharts to generate. There were apparently nearly 1600 people also generating reports.

Users can bypass this wait by purchasing a subscription, priced at €5 for 24 hours, €10 for one month, and €100 for a year.

Subscription information is only available to users that have given Twopcharts access to their Twitter account.

“If you take a 24 hours subscription we will give your request immediate priority, and you will receive a large HD interaction overview that shows up to 120 Twitter accounts you interacted with!” Twopcharts says.

“If you take a monthly subscription you will get a poster size image of 2700x1800 pixels!”

What permissions does Twopcharts need?

When signing up for Twopcharts, it requests access to:

• See Tweets from your timeline (including protected Tweets) as well as your Lists and collections.
• See your Twitter profile information and account settings.
• See accounts you follow, mute, and block.
• Follow and unfollow accounts for you.
• Update your profile and account settings.
• Post and delete Tweets for you, and engage with Tweets posted by others (Like, un-Like, or reply to a Tweet, Retweet, etc.) for you.
• Create, manage, and delete Lists and collections for you.
• Mute, block, and report accounts for you.

“We will never surprise you or Twitter (in a negative way),” Twopchart says.

A Twitter help page says users should be “cautious before giving any third-party app access to your account.

“We also suggest you regularly review third-party apps which have access to use your account to confirm that you still want to give them access.”

Twopcharts told The Independent that it only has "access to publicly accessible data."

"We do need to store information relating to signed in accounts, which is the userid, username and profile image and the access codes provided by Twitter to communicate through the API with Twitter."

Why should I be concerned?

Twopcharts’ website did not have an easily-accessible Terms and Conditions section or privacy policy. The Independent could not find such information on its website.

Twopcharts says that by agreeing to use the site, users “agree to our Cookies Use. We and selected third parties use cookies to improve your user experience, analytics, and advertizing”

Clicking on the hyperlink to learn more information about Twopcharts’ cookie use led to a Twopchart user page for the Twitter account @cookies.

The policy is now available on the website, but is unreadable unless a user has already signed-up to the website.

"By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes" it reads.

Following publication of this artice, the privacy policy can now be seen on the site.

Twitter's Development Policy, which developers have to abide by to develop third-party applications, states: "Protecting and defending the privacy of people on Twitter is built into the core DNA of our company. As such, we prohibit the use of Twitter data in any way that would be inconsistent with people’s reasonable expectations of privacy."

"By building on the Twitter API or accessing Twitter Content, you have a special role to play in safeguarding this commitment, most importantly by respecting people’s privacy and providing them with transparency and control over how their data is used."

The Independent has reached out to Twitter for clarification on whether Twopcharts adequately protected user privacy.

"The redirection of the cookie policy is now fixed. In a recent software change, “cookies” was omitted as a reserved word, means it is assumed it is a Twitter handle," Wagemakers explained.

Its "very modest revenue comes from advertising that you can see on the website and from paid subscriptions," Wagemakers continued, saying that he does not sell Twitter data to "anyone".

Twopcharts' Privacy Policy states that it "may share generic aggregated demographic information not linked to any personal identification information regarding visitors and users with our business partners, trusted affiliates and advertisers."

I already used Twopcharts? What should I do?

In order to revoke Twopcharts’ access to your account, users need to navigate to the Settings and Privacy section of their Twitter account.

Under “Data and Permissions” is a section called “apps and sessions”. Clicking that will allow you to revoke access of any app.

It is unclear what information, if any, Twopcharts retains on the user.The Independent has reached out to Twopcharts for clarification.

"If people do not log in to our service, no data is gathered about them, they are just directed to a sign in page," Wagemakers said.

"Normally if people unfollow our accounts we remove whatever data that was required to provide a specific service" he continued. "If a user would request to have data removed we would check it here would be anything and remove it, but this almost never happens."