Twitter, that one-time bastion for social media users who abhor having their online lives exposed to advertising and marketing ploys, is continuing to go the paid way with new technology that will allow people to sign up for advertiser’s offers or promotions within a tweet itself. Good news for people who hate having to click a link and leave Twitter, somewhat suspect for people who are already wary of sharing their personal information online.

CNET says the addition of a new Twitter Card, or an expanded tweet, is a way to keep users dependent on their streams for all the news and Internet fodder they need. They’ve been around for a year, and so far have served the purpose of basically just opening up a Tweet to see more of what the content is about before clicking off into the Internet.

This new method of expanding a Tweet will allow marketers to collect names, Twitter handles and email addresses of customers without them having to fill out a form. One click of a button will share email addresses directly with an advertiser, something that could raise red flags among those concerned about online privacy.

Twitter says the system is secure, but then again, it’s not up to Twitter what those advertisers do with your information once they’ve got it. Like any online entity that collects personal info, this latest step into interacting with customers will likely face opposition despite Twitter’s reassurance.

Check out an example of how it’ll work below.

Twitter lets advertisers collect contact info from tweets [CNET]

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