Whether you believe the news to be true or not, you can’t deny the fact that all centralized social media hold or “own” all their users’ data. Why won’t they sell it if they get a deal that is too lucrative to resist?

Sunday Telegraph has reported that Twitter sold data to the Cambridge University academic, who harvested millions of Facebook users’ information without their knowledge.

Facebook admits breach of user data

Last month, Facebook had admitted that data of 87 millions of its users was compromised or collected without their consent and were passed on to the British election consultants Cambridge Analytica.

Twitter admits selling user data

Now Twitter has confirmed that GSR, Dr. Aleksandr Kogan’s own commercial enterprise, had purchased one-time API access to a random sample of public tweets from a five-month period between December 2014 and April 2015. However Cambridge Analytica has tweeted that this data was never purchased or used by it.

Twitter admits that it sells API access to its data to large enterprise customers for surveying sentiments or opinions during various events or around certain topics and ideas. But Twitter only shares publicly available data and don’t share any private messages among its users. Unlike Facebook, Twitter doesn’t forces users to use their real names; and location data is also opt-in at the end of users. So it says that what it shares was already public.

But Cambridge Analytica denies all allegations

Cambridge Analytica has come up with several clarifications after this data scandal emerged. To clarify its stand and reveal the “truth” behind the speculations and accusations, it has issued a Press Release of 10 Facts. They also launched a dedicated website called Cambridge Facts to address the falsehoods around their company and work. But this website has yet to cover their stand on Twitter data issue.

Whatever the truth is, we know that we have handed over our personal details to business corporations that only work for maximizing their profits. And we may not know the actual truth behind these news but it’s obvious that there can’t be any smoke without fire.

I hope events like these will only underline the adoption of blockchain based social media platforms. So let's take these events with a positive sign towards the evolution of trustless, distributed, decentralized blockchain based social media. Hail Steem!