Twitter's New Privacy Option

Yesterday, in my comments about how Facebook may fail, I wrote: "People will think it's creepy that Facebook is sharing so much of their stuff, and they won't be able to build an ad model that is more fun or lucrative than watching YouTube while tweeting."

Today, Twitter announced a "Do Not Track" Option to protect the privacy of its users:

Twitter’s move to put power into the hands of the users with Do Not Track is part of a series of recent announcements by the company that seem to favor its users. Earlier this month Twitter filed a court motion to protect the information about one of its users who made use of Twitter during the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Last month Twitter was also lauded for announcing the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, a new type of patent agreement that gives legal rights to engineers who are awarded a patent, stopping any potential for a patent to be used for offensive litigation in the future.

This is going to be a big deal. I expect that these kinds of options will eventually be required by legislation.