Some Android users ‘ Twitter were exposed to non-followers and search engines with their private tweets.
Social media Twitter today revealed that it has fixed a bug affecting Android app users. The bug accidentally altered the visibility of protected tweets from private to public, the company said.
The problem didn’t affect all users. According to Twitter, only the following users may have been affected:
- Used Twitter for the Android app
- Had enabled the “Protect Your Tweets” option
- Changed their account e-mail address between November 3, 2014 and January 14, 2019
The bug also did not affect users of their web or iOS clients, although members changed their account e-mail address from an Android client and then used it. The company has also published a help center page on the bug today, because its engineers have not been able to identify and confirm every account that has been affected in the last five years.
“We recognize and appreciate the trust you place in us and commit ourselves to this trust every day. We are very sorry that it happened and we carry out a complete review to help prevent this from happening again, “the company said.
In September 2018, Twitter was hit by another bug affecting its Account Activity API (AAAPI), which sent private messages to the wrong Twitter app developers.
Twitter users can double-check the “Protect Your Tweets” option in the Twitter account settings panel, under the “Privacy and Security ” option.
