Twitter Stores Full Mobile Contact List for 18 Months

Los Angeles Times: Just days after the developers behind the Path app ran into trouble for storing contact data, Twitter has acknowledged that its mobile apps store users’ contact lists for up to 18 months after users tap the “Find friends” feature. Twitter’s current privacy policy does not make clear that the apps upload and save contact data, but the company says it plans to take steps to make its actions more explicit. “We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users,” said Twitter’s Carolyn Penner. “Along those lines, in our next app updates, which are coming soon, we are updating the language associated with Find Friends — to be more explicit. In place of ‘Scan your contacts,’ we will use ‘Upload your contacts’ and ‘Import your contacts’ (in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, respectively).”

Twitter users can use the “remove” link on the Twitter website if they would like the service to delete their contact lists from its servers.