THREADS LOOSE?

Twitter alternative app an info-loaded ‘hackers dream,’ experts warn

It knows when you’ve been online shopping, the last time you worked out and whether you’ve been lurking on your ex’s profile.

Meta’s new social media platform Threads is gobbling up massive amounts of sensitive data on its 100 million users. The specificity and quantity of information the text and multimedia platform can access poses a risk to most users if it falls into the wrong hands or is used to target them, tech experts agree.

“This is a hacker’s dream,” said Claudette McGowan, a longtime banking executive who founded Protexxa, a Toronto-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to identify and resolve cyber-issues for employees.

The more data you have sitting in a certain position (or) spot is going to get people really excited about getting access to it and being very creative about it.

Threads falls under Meta’s wider privacy policy that covers its other social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. That policy details how Meta captures everything from the information you give it when you sign up for accounts, to what you click on or like, who you befriend online and what kind of phone, computer or tablet you use to access its products.

It also keeps tabs on what you’re doing on your device, like whether the app is in the foreground or if your mouse is moving, messages you send and receive and details on purchases you make, including credit card information.

Threads also has its own supplemental privacy policy, which says “we collect information about your activity on Threads, including the content you create, the types of content you view or interact with and how you interact with it, metadata about your content, the Threads features you use and how you use them, the hashtags you use, and that time, frequency and duration of your activities on Threads.”

The privacy policy Threads has embedded in Apple’s app store shows it may collect and link to your identity, data including your health and fitness, financial, browsing history, location and contact information along with the broad category of “sensitive information.”

“It looks to me like it is a grab bag or a drift-net approach,” said Brett Caraway, a professor of media economics at the University of Toronto.

That approach is not unusual for social media services or other apps. It’s become “standard repertoire” for such companies to broker access to as much data as possible, he said.

Social media app TikTok, for example, collects usernames, passwords, birthdates, email addresses, telephone number, information disclosed in user profiles, photos and videos. It also grabs preferences you set, content you upload, comments you make, websites you’ve visited, apps you’ve downloaded and purchases you have made.

Screen resolution, keystroke patterns, battery levels, audio settings and “approximate location based on your SIM card and /or IP address” are also scooped up by TikTok.

Caraway often hears from students who wonder why they should care if social media companies access their data because they’re not famous and don’t use such apps for controversial activities.

“Just because you’re safe today doesn’t mean you’re safe tomorrow,” Caraway argues.

“We’re certainly seeing a situation in the U.S. where certain marginalized populations are under attack, at least rhetorically and sometimes legally and you might find yourself as part of one of those marginalized populations.”