Twitter Says Private Tweets Were Public For YEARS!
Twitter has become aware of an issue in Twitter for Android that disabled the “Protect your Tweets” setting if certain account changes were made. You may have been impacted by this issue if you had protected Tweets turned on in your settings, used Twitter for Android, and made certain changes to account settings such as changing the email address associated with your account between November 3, 2014, and January 14, 2019.
People on iOS or the web were not impacted. Twitter fixed the issue on January 14, and they will provide updates if other important information becomes available.
They have informed people they know were affected by this issue and have turned “Protect your Tweets” back on for them if it was disabled. They are providing this broader notice through the Twitter Help Center since they can’t confirm every account that may have been impacted. They encourage you to review your privacy settings to ensure that your “Protect your Tweets” setting reflects your preferences.
They recognize and appreciate the trust you place in Twitter, and are committed to earning that trust every day. Twitter are very sorry this happened and they are conducting a full review to help prevent this from happening again.
Duncan is a technology professional with over 20 years experience of working in various IT roles. He has a interest in cyber security, and has a wide range of other skills in radio, electronics and telecommunications.