Twitter Bug Compromises Android Users, Private Tweets Made Public
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Social networking platform Twitter has an option in its privacy settings called ‘Protect My Tweets.’ This feature makes it so that only a user’s followers can see what they’re tweeting, making them private for those who aren’t followers.
It has recently come to light that Android users who activated this feature have been compromised by a bug that made their private tweets public. Apparently, this bug has affected those who made changes to their accounts (such as switching email addresses or changing passwords) between November 2014 and January 2019.
Twitter has shared that it has made contact with users who they are aware were affected by the bug. It has also said that it has switched the protection settings back on for those who were compromised by the bug. At the same time, Twitter has revealed that it has not been able to determine how many accounts were impacted, so the number of users compromised is unknown.
It issued this public statement so that they could reach out to the wider community and raise awareness regarding the issue, as they wouldn’t be able to identify and contact every affected party through an internal investigation.
Apparently, the issue was fixed by January 14, but even so, Twitter urges its userbase to look over their privacy settings and make sure that nothing is amiss. They also said that it will share information as and when it discovers anything noteworthy.
Part of its statement read: “We’re very sorry this happened and we’re conducting a full review to help prevent this from happening again.” It would seem that it is actively working on preventing the issue from springing up again.
At present, all evidence suggests that Android users were the only portion of the userbase to be compromised. Twitter users on iOS or desktop are reportedly ‘in the clear’ and not at risk of their tweets being made public accidentally.
Other recent instances of privacy breaches with Twitter include a situation from 4 months ago when direct messages (DMs) and private tweets had been shared with certain developers who were not supposed to have access to them. Twitter was quick to respond to this situation and resolved matters quickly.