Usually, when we think when something gets deleted, it’s gone for good without being able to be recovered. That’s not necessarily the case with Twitter holding on to direct messages that were thought to be deleted and that’s that.
Security researcher Karan Saini was able to find year old Direct Messages (DMs) in a file from an archive of his data that was obtained through Twitter. Some of the DMs were even from accounts that were no longer on the platform. Even though Saini claims this is more of a “functional bug” than a security flaw, it’s still a concern that the bug will allow anyone to access information to suspended or deactivated accounts.
A Twitter spokesperson has responded and said the company was “looking into this further to ensure we have considered the entire scope of the issue.” While Twitter is looking into the issue, this bug is still a problem with Europe’s new data protection laws. These laws let users tell companies that they wish for their data to be completely deleted and as such, they should expect it to be fully deleted.
Current policies on Twitter’s help page state that users can delete messages from their account but others in the conversation will still be able to see direct messages or conversations that you have deleted. This could, in part, be a reason for deleted DMs to still be visible in your Twitter data downloads. Also stated in the company’s privacy policy is that if anyone leaves Twitter, their account is deactivated and deleted. However, there is a 30-day grace period before the account will fully disappear along with all of its data.
IWhat are your thoughts about Twitter keeping Direct Messages that you thought were originally deleted? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook, or MeWe.
[button link=”https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/15/twitter-direct-messages/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: techcrunch[/button]Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
