Twitter Discloses Bug That Accidentally Shared User Location Data

A lot of apps rely on our location to improve on its services. For example, knowing where we are might provide better information about the weather, or where a ride-hailing service can pick us up, or where we might be able to find the nearest pharmacy. Location privacy is quite a sensitive thing, which is why some of you might be a bit miffed about what happened with Twitter recently.

The company has recently announced on its website that they have encountered a bug with their system that accidentally collected and shared location data on iOS devices with one of their “trusted partners”. The company did not detail bug and has attempted to downplay the data that was collected but has reassured its users that the data obtained by their partner has since already been deleted.

According to Twitter, “We have fixed this problem and are working hard to make sure it does not happen again. We have also communicated with the people whose accounts were impacted to let them know the bug has been fixed. We invite you to check your privacy settings to make sure you’re only sharing the data you want to with us.”

It is unclear if this announcement will be enough to appease their users, but as we said, location privacy seems to be a touchy subject so it remains to be seen if there will be any additional fallout from this. In the meantime, perhaps it won’t be the worst idea for you to review some of your privacy settings on Twitter.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Privacy, Twitter