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Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

bbc.com

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Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#51

Post by Rychard »

eugeniub wrote: post #26
bilbo0s wrote: post #9

Just my own opinion, but at this point I think it's prudent to assume that pretty much anything you send out into the digital network world is public. If it's not something you would want the world knowing you said, don't put it out there. Security breaches happen. Bugs happen. Sometimes law enforcement just comes by and says, "Give me everything that user X has ever done." In short, sh!t happens. "Everything I do on…

The result of this is the attitude that we shouldn’t even bother trying to make services and products more secure. Why send tweets over HTTPS? It’s all public anyway. Why should WhatsApp use end-to-end encryption given Facebook’s hostility to user privacy?

While the parent has a valid point, I agree with you in the sense that such an attitude doesn't effectively convey the intended message. I think it's unrealistic to expect the average non-technical user to understand the distinction between HTTPS and something being "private".

That said, I don't really know of a better way to phrase it; describing this sort of stuff to non-technical users is a bit of a minefield, so I can certainly relate to the solution of "just assume the worst and nothing can go wrong", because if followed, it's unarguably the safest thing to do.

It's a solution in the same sense as "teaching abstinence to teenagers to avoid unwanted pregnancies" is, which is to say that it's largely ineffective at solving the problem, despite being the most effective of all options.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#52

Post by nkkollaw »

Varcht wrote: post #48
bilbo0s wrote: post #9

Just my own opinion, but at this point I think it's prudent to assume that pretty much anything you send out into the digital network world is public. If it's not something you would want the world knowing you said, don't put it out there. Security breaches happen. Bugs happen. Sometimes law enforcement just comes by and says, "Give me everything that user X has ever done." In short, sh!t happens. "Everything I do on…

All our base are belong to them.

What you say !!

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#53

Post by simion314 »

bilbo0s wrote: post #9

Just my own opinion, but at this point I think it's prudent to assume that pretty much anything you send out into the digital network world is public. If it's not something you would want the world knowing you said, don't put it out there. Security breaches happen. Bugs happen. Sometimes law enforcement just comes by and says, "Give me everything that user X has ever done." In short, sh!t happens. "Everything I do on…

So how do I send an email or private message if I consider it public? I think your point is almost right just you need to make it more fuzzy(in the sense of using probabilities).

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#54

Post by miracle2k »

the_duke wrote: post #2

This is the actual source: https://help.twitter.com/en/protected-tweets-android .

So basically, the issue was that the settings screen in the Android app would toggle the "account is private" setting off when updating unrelated settings; however, the setting itself, if turned on, worked fine.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#55

Post by VikingCoder »

bilbo0s wrote: post #9

Just my own opinion, but at this point I think it's prudent to assume that pretty much anything you send out into the digital network world is public. If it's not something you would want the world knowing you said, don't put it out there. Security breaches happen. Bugs happen. Sometimes law enforcement just comes by and says, "Give me everything that user X has ever done." In short, sh!t happens. "Everything I do on…

Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place."

People have taken this different ways, but personally I think it's sage advice. We've lost our ability to keep secrets. Information wants to be free. We're terrible at digital security. Pretend everything you type into a computer is on the front page of the New York Times.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#56

Post by elorant »

bilbo0s wrote: post #9

Just my own opinion, but at this point I think it's prudent to assume that pretty much anything you send out into the digital network world is public. If it's not something you would want the world knowing you said, don't put it out there. Security breaches happen. Bugs happen. Sometimes law enforcement just comes by and says, "Give me everything that user X has ever done." In short, sh!t happens. "Everything I do on…

If you go down this line it won't take long for various actors to assume that you're ok with them knowing everything you do offline too.

Either we protect privacy or we don't. There's no middle ground.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#57

Post by blattimwind »

VikingCoder wrote: post #55
bilbo0s wrote: post #9

Just my own opinion, but at this point I think it's prudent to assume that pretty much anything you send out into the digital network world is public. If it's not something you would want the world knowing you said, don't put it out there. Security breaches happen. Bugs happen. Sometimes law enforcement just comes by and says, "Give me everything that user X has ever done." In short, sh!t happens. "Everything I do on…

Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place." People have taken this different ways, but personally I think it's sage advice. We've lost our ability to keep secrets. Information wants to be free. We're terrible at digital security. Pretend everything you type into a computer is on the front page of the New York Times.

> Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place."

Would he extend this idea to clandestince agencies?

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#58

Post by mintplant »

artursapek wrote: post #24
fixermark wrote: post #17

Sometimes, I'm sad I quit using Twitter. There are some neat people sharing content there. But the more time goes by, the less sad I get. Their tech stack is and always has been a bit of a garbage fire.

Name one startup that grew quickly and organically into a massive company which doesn't have a "garbage fire" tech stack.

WhatsApp.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#59

Post by MoronInAHurry »

beachie wrote: post #36

I had the pleasure of interviewing the anonymous developer of the fastest organically growing decentralized p2p app notabug.io I feel its relevant to this conversation. Why are we not switching to decentralized content sharing platforms? :S https://electronicsforu.com/resources/cool-stuff-misc/future... https://electronicsforu.com/resources/cool-stuff-misc/future...

The top post on notabug right now is "Tampermonkey script for auto-voting on notabug, lets level the playing field". The site has like 10 users and it's already destroyed by bots. Anarchy isn't a good approach to running a site if you want anything useful to come out of it.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#60

Post by beachie »

soared wrote: post #42
beachie wrote: post #36

I had the pleasure of interviewing the anonymous developer of the fastest organically growing decentralized p2p app notabug.io I feel its relevant to this conversation. Why are we not switching to decentralized content sharing platforms? :S https://electronicsforu.com/resources/cool-stuff-misc/future... https://electronicsforu.com/resources/cool-stuff-misc/future...

> Why are we not switching to decentralized content sharing platforms? Because that site looks like a phishing site for reddit accounts. How is 100% cloning another site's design acceptable at all?

Also HN looks like a clone of reddit!
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