hi jim.
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.
this is pretty interesting suggestion - but until more sophisticated privacy mechanisms are put in place, if we were to implement some sort of "expiration" parameter on the geocoding, we would probably still put a max of a fixed number of dates for the longevity of the geo- coded information (max of 7 days and the expiration parameter in days).
i view geolocation, if used as part of a status update, as an inherent part of the tweet - IMHO i would not support deleting a portion of the tweet without deleting the entire tweet.
-- Raffi Krikorian Twitter Platform Team ra...@twitter.com | @raffi
