As an alternative to a hard coded 7 days for the interval to the removal of geocoding information from a tweet, I suggest that an optional "expires" parameter be added to the statuses/update method. The value of this parameter would give the number of days between the tweet creation and when the geocoding would be removed from the tweet.
The default value of the parameter, i.e., the value used if the parameter is not present in a statuses/update request, would be 7, in conformance with current policy. An explicit value of 0 would indicate that the geocoding information is never to be removed (But see below.). You may also want to consider a new method that removes the geocoding information from an existing tweet, even if the interval was specified as 0. Obviously, irreversible, like deleting a tweet, and could only be done by the creator of the tweet, like the statuses/destroy method. Comments expected and welcome. Jim Renkel On Sep 29, 12:42 pm, Raffi Krikorian <ra...@twitter.com> wrote: > > I just noticed this in the API wiki, under the statuses/update method: > > > "Currently, all geolocated information will be removed after seven > > days." > > > Two questions: > > > 1. What exactly will be removed: the geocoding attached to the tweet? > > Or the whole tweet? > > the geocoding attached to the tweet. > > > 2. Why? I.e., why remove the geocoding or the whole tweet? I can think > > of many use cases where it is important for the geocoding to remain as > > long as the tweet remains. For example, I take a great vacation > > picture, upload it to Twitpic, then tweet about it, including where I > > took it. The location where I took the picture remains the same > > forever. Why delete the geocoding information from the tweet, or the > > whole tweet. This will just cause folk to put the geocoding > > information in the text of the tweet, taking up valuable space and > > reducing the value of geocoding tweets, and cause developers (Like me, > > admittedly) to develop applications that put the geocoding in the text > > of the tweet. With applications like that available, twitter users are > > less likely to go to the botther of opting-in to twitter geocoding of > > their tweets. > > this is being done for privacy issues, and in the future data will be > kept for longer once more sophisticated privacy controls are put into > place. > > -- > Raffi Krikorian > Twitter Platform Team > ra...@twitter.com | @raffi
