Meta’s Threads will not be a threat to Twitter in the EU… for now

Cancel your July 6th alarms if you are in the EU and if you were waiting to get the latest Meta app: Threads (a Twitter challenger, more on that later). Due to privacy regulations in Europe, Threads will be released on July 6th just in the US and the UK, where such laws are not fully imposed by GDPR or EU rules.

This does not mean that users in Spain or Germany will never get to see Threads on their phones. It’s just that they’ll have to wait a bit more until Meta manages to sort the privacy issues, according to spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (via engadget).

What privacy issues are we talking here?

According to sources, the US version of Threads will notify users that it’s about to collect a juicy personal data gamut that includes health data, financial information, browse histories, location, purchases, contacts, search history and sensitive information. At this point it’s easier just to list the areas Threads will not be poking a nose in.

Meta’s latest app is said to be designed to import data from another Meta app – Instagram, including behavioral and advertising information. Such practices are common in the US, where Zuckerberg’s giant merged data streams between WhatsApp and Facebook. The Irish regulator DPC (Data Protection Commission) has looked into that matter on EU soil as early as 2018, followed by a €225 million fine on WhatsApp.

Threads tries to throw Twitter to the terra

It looks like long before (if) we ever get to see the promised actual cage fight between Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Elon Musk, the first round will be in the digital realm. Threads is announced as a direct competitor to Twitter, pledging on delivering basically a ‘text-oriented Instagram’. Here’s where you can read more about Threads, a Twitter alternative.