Twitter bug exposes private accounts’ tweets on Android for five years

Jan 18, 2019

Twitter revealed an issue they came across; their Protect your Tweets option was disabled for accounts if certain account changes were made.

The issue existed from November 3, 2014, to January 14, 2019. Twitter claims that the issue is fixed. People using Twitter on iOS and desktop were not affected.

Protect your Tweets, made your Twitter account private. You would have the option to manually select users able to see your tweets. Changes made to an account like a change of the linked e-mail address would disable the Protect Your Tweets settings.

The platform has informed the ones affected and turned the settings on for them.

Also Read: Twitter restores reverse-chronological feed on Android

In September, Twitter shared private conversations of users with developers using AAPI. An estimated 1% of users’ private interactions through DMs were shared with developers checking real-time activities.

In early January 2019, Insignia Security, a Britain-based security firm did a real-time social experiment where they hacked several celebrities’ accounts like Louis Theroux and more and found that Twitter accounts were still not safe and were vulnerable to hackers.

Twitter would need to pull their pants up and tighten security in the wake of these instances.