X is revising its privacy policy to include provisions that permit the sharing of user data with external “collaborators” for the purpose of training artificial intelligence models. This updated policy, set to be implemented on November 15, 2024, appears to pave the way for agreements similar to those on Reddit, where external entities may pay to access data from X.
X has released the revised policy containing a newly added section labeled “third-party collaborators.”
Depending on your settings, or if you decide to share your data, we may share or disclose your information with third parties. If you do not opt out, in some instances the recipients of the information may use it for their own independent purposes in addition to those stated in X’s Privacy Policy, including, for example, to train their artificial intelligence models, whether generative or otherwise.
The updated privacy policy from X mentions that users have the option to opt out, yet the specifics of how to exercise this option remain unclear. TechCrunch highlights that while the policy directs users to the settings menu, there currently seems to be no feature available to opt out of data sharing. Since the policy is not scheduled to take effect until the following month, there is still the possibility for this to be addressed. X has not provided a comment on the matter when requested.
Should X decide to start offering its data to other businesses, it could potentially create a substantial new source of income for the social media platform, particularly at a time when interest from key advertisers is diminishing. Alongside changes to the privacy policy, X is also making amendments to its terms of service, introducing more severe consequences for those found to be “scraping” tweets in bulk. Under a section named “liquidated damages,” the company outlines that any party that views or accesses over a million posts in a single day will incur a fine of $15,000.
Protecting our users’ data and our system resources is important to us. You further agree that, to the extent permitted by applicable law, if you violate the Terms, or you induce or facilitate others to do so, in addition to all other legal remedies available to us, you will be jointly and severally liable to us for liquidated damages as follows for requesting, viewing, or accessing more than 1,000,000 posts (including reply posts, video posts, image posts, and any other posts) in any 24-hour period – $15,000 USD per 1,000,000 posts.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has expressed strong opposition to “scraping” in the past. In the previous year, X temporarily restricted the ability to view tweets for users who were not logged in, a decision Musk explained was aimed at deterring scrapers. Additionally, he placed X’s API behind a subscription model, significantly limiting the capacity of researchers to analyze activities on the platform. Musk has also cited “scraping” allegations as grounds for legal action against groups that have tried to investigate hate speech and other concerns on X.
