CBS (UNDATED) - Twitter, the popular social networking tool, has just admitted to recording a lot more information than just your tweets.
Users of the service who have installed the Twitter app for their smartphones are now unknowingly sharing their contact list and browsing history, among other details.
So what does this means to your privacy?
Download the Twitter app to your smartphone and get ready to share more than your tweets. Once you agree to "find friends," Twitter starts collecting your personal information.
"When you use the application, in order to match you with other users who might be using it, your address book goes up to the server and that's what Twitter was doing," says Rafe Needleman, CNET editor-at-large.
Besides your contacts' names, phone numbers and email address, Twitter records browsing history and search terms.
"What Twitter wasn't telling people was that they were keeping that address book for 18 months which is a long time to keep all of your personal data," says Needleman.
In an email to the Los Angeles Times, Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said, quote,
"We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users. 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."
Needleman says Twitter, however, is not alone.
"All the social companies are doing this. Some of them tell you, some of them don't. Should we be concerned? Yes."
The reaction from Twitter users in downtown San Francisco was mixed.
"I always wonder about where the information is going to go and what other use it's going to have," says Danny Orsburn.
"I don't mind," says Darren Brazil. "I figure if you use the internet, you better get used to the fact that you don't have any privacy."
"I don't think I'm very uncomfortable with that because if there's something I want to share then I don't mind sharing it," says Urmila Kashyap.
Because of public and governmental pressure, most apps being written now, or updated like Twitter, will include warnings, allowing users to authorize or opt-out of the sharing of this personal information.