Twitter Shakes Up Its Privacy Policy

You may have received the email this week, too, about the changes at Twitter

They are adding Tailored Suggestions, a list of Twitter users you might want to follow based on your visits to websites that are integrate Twitter buttons or widgets. It hasn’t been rolled out for everyone yet, but I was able to check it out with our Twitter profile, and it worked well, giving me a list of social media and small business supporters to follow. More information here about how it works, as well as how to get out of it, if you’d like.

Twitter has clarified ways to set your preferences to limit, modify or remove the information they collect, including the Do Not Track (DNT) browser setting, which stops the collection of information used for tailored suggestions.

The revised Terms of Service clarifies how Twitter works and the small changes and formatting improvements they recently made, including new headings for easy reference and updated descriptions of services.

The most important thing to keep to in mind? Their very first tip:

Take a minute to read over their new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

How To: Use Two Gmail Accounts Simultaneously

When Google re-vamped their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service in March, it changed the way we log into Google services, including YouTube, Blogger, and Gmail. You could log in once and be signed in to all the services, rather than logging in individually to each that you wanted to use.

This certainly can make using various services at the same time easier, it caused a hiccup for those of us that use more than one Gmail address. If you were signed into Gmail in one account, then needed to add a YouTube video or a blog post with your other Gmail account, it would require logging out of one and into the other. Bothersome.

Luckily, Google recently changed this and you can now be logged into multiple Google accounts at the same time.

1. At the top right corner of your screen, click on your name and a dialog box similar to the one to the right will show up.
2. Click on “Add Account” and a new tab will open in your browser with a new log-in page for Gmail.
3. Go ahead and sign in, you’ll have access to both emails and any Google services’ accounts that are tied to either email.

Changing Terms with Pinterest

As Pinterest has exploded over the past six months, more and more people have questioned their all-encompassing Terms of Service. A close read left artists, designers, and photographers feeling a bit exploited and pinners wary of potential copyright infringement lawsuits. Despite what seems like a lengthy reaction time, Pinterest has finally made some changes.

On Friday, Marc 23, they announced on the blog and via email that they’ve made some changes that will go into effect on April 6, 2012. The Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy each underwent changes. The current terms state that by using Pinterest you grant them:

a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sub-license, to use, copy , adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view and otherwise exploit such Member content…

These terms caused more than a few folks to jump ship, but thankfully, Pinterest took these concerns and made some changes, including removing the perpetual right to sell. Starting April 6, the terms will state that by using Pinterest you grant them:

a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use, display, reproduce, re-pin, modify (e.g., re-format), re-arrange, and distribute your User Content on Pinterest.

Whether or not you choose to use Pinterest, I encourage you to read their new Terms of Service. It’s been re-written to be accessible and understandable to all of us non-lawyers.

Check it out and tell us, will it make a difference to you?

Changes at Pinterest

There’s been plenty of buzz about Pinterest over the last couple months (both pro and con), and as interest (and revenue) grows for the venture, things are changing. While the Terms of Use hasn’t been re-written yet, though we are hopeful, they have changed the profile pages.

Boards are no longer shown with the nine thumbnail pictures, but with one larger image and four below. Instead of pushing the profile image and contact info off to the left, it’s top and center now. There’s also a short re-pinned list.

Are you on Pinterest? What do you think of the changes?