Twitter confirmed this Friday (05) that publications made by users on the Roda were being exposed to people who were not part of it. The social network classified the case as a security incident and indicated that it happened in April of this year, without specifying exactly the period in which the breach was active.
The statement, with few details, is being sent by email to users whose accounts may have been affected by the problem. The speech appears in the conditional, since it depends on whether or not the user used the Wheel during the event, and does not provide details about how the exposure of publications happened and the reach that the publications that should be restricted had improperly.
In any case, Twitter points out that the issue is resolved and users do not need to take any action. The statement also implies that any posts published on the Roda that could be visible to people outside it are now only displayed to the list of friends configured by each profile. The social network apologized to users for what happened, claiming to have the protection of people’s privacy as a commitment.
What was the problem with the Twitter Wheel?
The Twitter Wheel was implemented in May 2022 as a way to give users greater control over who sees what posts. Through the feature, it is possible to create a list of up to 150 friends for whom restricted publications would be displayed, according to settings made at the time of posting – the concept is similar to that of “Close Friends” on Instagram.
The case that came to light in early April was investigated by the Canaltech and other technology vehicles, as well as by users themselves. Exposure in publications made on the Twitter Wheel seemed to vary according to the popularity of the profile and also according to changes made to the friends list by users.
In the tests carried out by the report, it was possible to see likes in posts that should not be seen by anyone, after the Wheel of a profile was reset. In another case, a user who didn’t follow the original account, but had several contacts in common, was able to view a post that was supposed to be restricted to only a select group of people.
In all situations, the posts appeared on the “For You” Twitter timeline and could be liked normally, but disappeared if a user tried to click on the post or interact with it directly. Closed accounts would also be seeing posts exposed in these ways, but this hypothesis was not confirmed by Twitter.
O Canaltech searched the social network in search of more information. The company no longer has press relations representatives in Brazil, while the global contact for this type of questioning continues to respond to journalists with a poop emoji, sent automatically.
