Twitter Moves non-US Accounts to Ireland to Dodge NSA, US Privacy Laws

Twitter has adopted a new privacy policy, which places the accounts of all users not based in the United States under the control of Twitter International Company in Dublin, Ireland.

The move allows Twitter to cover the accounts of users not based in the U.S. from the scrutiny of the National Security Agency. In the U.S., Twitter must comply with NSA-led court requests for data.

The new policy may also allow Twitter to engage in advertising practices using user information in ways which may not be allowed under U.S. law.

Ireland is recognized as having some of the most lenient privacy laws in Europe.

All U.S.-based accounts will still be handled by Twitter Inc from San Francisco.

In a privacy update post, Twitter delivered the following statement.

“If you live outside the United States, our services are now provided to you by Twitter International Company, our company based in Dublin, Ireland. Twitter International Company will be responsible for handling your account information under Irish privacy and data protection law, which is based on the European Union’s Data Protection Directive.”

The privacy update goes into affect on May 18, 2015.

The change, however, is not new for a social networking company as Facebook has adopted a similar practice.