Twitter. Android. Private tweets. Pick two... Account bug unlocked padlocked accounts

Twitter has fessed up to a flaw in its Android app that, for more than four years, was making twits' private tweets public. The programming blunder has been fixed. The 280-character social-experiment-gone-awry admitted on Thursday that a bug dating back to November 3, 2014 potentially changed users' "Protect your Tweets" …

[oiseau]

Common knowledge

... the best policy should be to never share anything with Twitter that you don't want the whole world to know about.

Indeed ... +100

With Twitter and any of these so called social whatevers people everywhere are hooked on because they are so convenient.

But shouldn't this have been sort of common knowledge from the very start?

After all, if what you get is free, you are the product.

Cheers.

O.

[Tromos]

Too long.

... the best policy should be to never share anything with Twitter that you don't want the whole world to know about.

That last sentence from the article could have been better by terminating ten words earlier.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Too long.

Is anyone other than someone in the public eye still using this shit?

Note to editor: the collective noun for people using Twitter is definitely twats. Spell it thwaites if you want to go under a filter radar.

[Anonymous Coward]

And.....

...nothing of value was lost.

[Anonymous South African Coward]

I played with Twatter when it was released. (Dabbsy, can you beat this?)

Still got my Twatter account, just use it to check occasionally what is newsworthy as some toll roads have a twatter channel tweeting when accidents etc occur.

Other than that I don't use it.

[Anonymous Coward]

So you've written a comment to be derogatory against a service that you have voluntarily and freely been using since the earliest days to get information that is useful and pertinent to you?

[entfe001]

Don't know about his case, but here in Barcelona rail disruptions are almost exclusively announced via Twitter. Not even on PA systems on the stations themselves.

So many times I knew my train was late because someone saw the disruption notice on his phone and was kind enough to inform everyone else waiting on platform.

You know, Barcelona being a Smart City and all, why bother with old, obsolete information systems like loudspeakers, screens or displays... there's no room nor care for Twitter-less citizens

Before the wall of downvotes: I am OK with service announcements via Twitter, they're really useful if you're not yet on the station and get an early warning of what to expect... what is utterly wrong is the mindset "because we've already warned on Twitter we don't need to make any other announcement whatsoever"

[Charlie Clark]

to get information that is useful and pertinent to you?

I think you might be overrating the utility. If it's essentially just passively reading feeds then it's not getting much data for Twitter to sell. And he'll presumably switch to a different service if it becomes available. For example, some travel companies will give your personalised updates on services via WhatsApp.

[Just Enough]

Twitter. Privacy. Pick one.

I find the concept of using Twitter to have private conversations curious. It's like setting up a loudspeaker stack in a high street, then worrying how you are going to erect a perfectly sound-proof cage around it so you can have a personal chat. Would you not be better going somewhere private and speak normally?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes I feel like the odd one out since I don't even have a facebook or twitter account...

[s. pam]

Feh, Twitter in the Shitter

Who cares?

If you're daft enough to use it, expect everything to be Public, just like Farcebook!

[Anonymous Coward]

...they typically padlock their feeds to avoid potential or real [consequences for tweeting before thinking, in an attempt to avoid the well-deserved blowback which they euphemistically call] harassment...

[The Nazz]

Protected tweets.

IME some kids ( huh, like 24 yo's) protect their tweets from their parents (hi, sprog), whilst others leave them open, so that they CAN communicate with their parents. Perversely entertaining.