Everything you need to know before you sign up for Threads

Are you thinking about signing up for Meta’s latest social media platform, Threads? If you are, it’s important to listen to the experts, as many of them say that you should first do your research and consider what personal data and tracking permissions you are giving them. 

In just a few days, Threads has managed to get more than 100 million users – nearly a quarter of Twitter’s audience base, breaking the record for a new social media company. 

The Threads app is similar to Twitter and other text-based platforms in many ways, with the key difference being the fact that it integrates seamlessly with Instagram.

However, some data security experts believe that this could be risky for users from a data privacy and security standpoint because it involves merging a lot of data between platforms and that could mean more unintended data sharing and privacy breaches in the future.  

Before you sign up for Threads, here are some key things to consider first: 

1. You can’t delete your Threads account without deleting the linked Instagram account, as the two are sealed together unless Meta decides to change its policy.
2. Your data can be sold by Meta and used for advertising purposes, although a lot of the data you share will already be stored if you have an Instagram account already.
3. Meta can collect even more information about users than it does already, including your location, name, email address, political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, health and fitness information, financial information like purchase history and payment details, photos, emails, texts, music files, credit score, calendar events, and contacts.

Before you open a Thread account, make sure you check all the information about the platform so you can be sure that you feel comfortable sharing your private data. 

Additionally, if you have a child or teenager, you should check the app’s privacy policies and consider how the child’s information will be stored and used.