A Twitter Bug Is Exposing Users’ Secret Circle Tweets To Everyone – SlashGear

Certain users have witnessed their tweets from the Circle reach other followers outside it. Meanwhile, some others even say the tweets are even visible to users besides followers. Affected users primarily learned about the broken nature of the feature when a few strangers interacted with their tweets that were intended for the inner circle.

While it’s difficult to pin the bug to a specific cause, it could be linked to the recent changes in Twitter’s recommendation algorithm that segmented the feed into “For You” and “Following” timelines. As you would expect from the names, For You also displays tweets from accounts you don’t follow.

Last October, public details of Elon Musk’s private jet appeared on Twitter. Musk likened the incident to “doxing” and dealt with it by ordering the suspension of the @ElonJet account along with the accounts of journalists who reported about it. But apparently, when it comes to users’ privacy — using a feature that supposedly guarantees it, Musk does not seem to be daunted much. Twitter Circle has reportedly been plagued with bugs for a few months now. These issues have not attracted Twitter’s attention, even as the tech bigwig looks to relentlessly promote the platform’s paid tier — called Twitter Blue.

This is a data breach under EU law. See the ~$550K fine from the Ireland DPC in 2020 over a permissions bug.

The “Only people in @ IanColdwater’s Twitter Circle can see this Tweet” scopes this to only a certain set of users, which is then not respected & shared more widely. https://t.co/6S8ilME5dj

— Whitney Merrill (@wbm312) April 10, 2023

This might amount to a violation of users’ permission and equate to a data breach under the EU’s regulations. Any monetary penalty, however, may be subject to intervention from regulators and lawmakers in the U.S.