Twitteris leaving the door open for targeted
advertising on its service in a shake up of its terms and
conditions announced over the weekend.
The company maintains its right to distribute advertising, and
says that the type and extent of its advertising is subject to
change.
It says, "The Services may include advertisements, which may be
targeted to the Content or information on the Services, queries
made through the Services, or other information. The types and
extent of advertising by Twitter on the Services are subject to
change."
It says that in return for the use of Twitter, individuals
"agree that Twitter and its third party providers and partners may
place such advertising on the Services or in connection with the
display of Content or information from the Services".
Co-founder Bizz Stone has
said before that the company wants to keep its options open,
and its new terms of service allows it to do that.
The company also asserted that "tweets" belong to the user who
writes them - but adds, "Twitter is allowed to 'use, copy,
reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and
distribute' your tweets because that's what we do. However, they
are your tweets and they belong to you."
Stone also mentioned changes to the company's policy on spam,
and said Twitter is currently building a set of guidelines for use
of the API.
He said, "It is important that everyone who tweets, develops
apps, or is simply interested in Twitter understands that it's not
about the technology, it's about how we all use the service that
matters most."