Meta is set to launch its new Threads microblogging social network as soon as Thursday, July 6. A pre-order listing for the new app has already appeared on the App Store on Monday, with Meta teasing Threads launch through a dedicated countdown.
The service is being described as a Twitter clone and is largely based on Instagram, even allowing users to sign in with Meta’s media-sharing social platform. In addition to sharing photos and videos, Thread will enable users to share character-limited pieces of text otherwise known as, you guessed it, threads.
Screenshots of Threads from the App Store reveal some tidbits about the app and its interface, including the ability to keep and carry over your Instagram username and profile picture. Threads is very reminiscent of Instagram’s user interface, including the ability to like, comment, and reply to posts, in addition to a new sharing option likely similar to Twitter’s retweet.
In typical Meta fashion, Threads appear to be collecting hoards of user data that are very unlikely to be necessary to run and use the app, as first pointed out by Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey. Per the App Privacy section on the App Store listing, Threads plans to collect an immense amount of data directly linked to its users.
In fact, the new app from Meta seems to be collecting every type of personal data that developers are permitted to collect per the App Store guidelines, including Contact, Location, Identifiers, and even Health & Fitness! Here is a full list of user data that Meta plans to collect through Threads:
- Contact Info
- Health & Fitness
- Financial Info
- Location
- Sensitive Info
- Contacts
- User Content
- Browsing History
- Search History
- Identifiers
- Purchases
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
- Other Data
The collected user data categories align with other apps offered by Meta, as both Facebook and Instagram appear to collect the same data types as Threads. On the other hand, Twitter seems to be faring slightly better than Meta’s offerings, as the social media app now controlled by the eccentric billionaire Elon Musk collects fewer data categories linked to users, including:
- Purchases
- Contact Info
- User Content
- Browsing History
- Usage Data
- Location
- Contacts
- Search History
- Identifiers
- Diagnostics
