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Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

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151–160 of 196 posts

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#151
post #148
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree entirely. Being a young white male with some moderately conservative ideals in [West coast city] makes you entirely unlikable by most people who find out. This is my first hand experience. Being conservative is the new taboo.

I don't doubt that such people experience friction, but the comment I was responding to made an analogy between being conservative in the US and being gay in Russia. The former group is the ruling class in the US. The latter group is criminalized, shamed, and sometimes murdered. Further, being gay can't harm someone else, while being conservative in a (theoretical) democracy certainly can hurt people.

Are you trying to make the claim that, since one instance of discrimination is worse than the other, then we shouldn't try to discuss and explore other controversial examples of the discrimination, simply because they're not as bad? Even if they are more relevant to us, the commenters? I didn't see the parent claiming that their version of bigotry was worse/equal to grandparent's version, that's something you falsely assumed.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#152
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I have been teaching my kids and their cousins: 1) Everything you do on the internet is public 2) Everything you post on the internet is forever 3) Everything above can be traced back to you I also showed them how easy it is to save private and public snaps without sending a screenshot notification (including video!) and how easy it is to fake. It's hard to know if it's sinking in or not, but I hope so.…

> Everything you post on the internet is forever I wish it was. Anything on social media maybe, but the broader internet dies in ~10 years.

A lot of my forum posts from 2004 are still around. Also web archive exists meaning that all those sites are being archived even if the site hosting that content disappears.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#153
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I have been teaching my kids and their cousins: 1) Everything you do on the internet is public 2) Everything you post on the internet is forever 3) Everything above can be traced back to you I also showed them how easy it is to save private and public snaps without sending a screenshot notification (including video!) and how easy it is to fake. It's hard to know if it's sinking in or not, but I hope so.…

> Everything you post on the internet is forever I wish it was. Anything on social media maybe, but the broader internet dies in ~10 years.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#154
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or openly conservative in the USA

I’m sorry, but what? Are you suggesting that being conservative in the United States is somehow equivalent to being gay in Russia?

Yep. Assuming you live in SV, would you like to disprove me by putting a TRUMP 2020 sign on your lawn?

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#155
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…

I'm working on an app with some social collaboration features: https://getpolarized.io/ These security breaches are really screwing me over. Our user base is really really pissed at Facebook, Twitter, etc. and the pendulum has swung the other direction. I think they're borderline paranoid about sharing their data. I mean whether they are justified or not is one thing but I definitely do not personally have any nefari…

Looking at your comment history, you link to your website in almost every comment you write. Don't you think that's a bit excessive?

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#156
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything you post on the internet is forever I wish it was. Anything on social media maybe, but the broader internet dies in ~10 years.

A lot of my forum posts from 2004 are still around. Also web archive exists meaning that all those sites are being archived even if the site hosting that content disappears.

When I search for my name I get Usenet posts from 1991 :)

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#157
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…

One good thing about this is that it encourages me to write charitably if I would otherwise speak of someone critically. I write and do anything as if it might end up in court as evidence basically. Could be tiresome but I’d like to think that it motivates me to be more positive or careful.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#158
This is why whenever you build software, you basically should encrypt any and all data and you should be extremely careful when it comes to permission checks. Especially if you are a company or startup, there's no excuse for not burning through a few thousand dollars more here and there to build more secure software that doesn't result in privacy blow-ups like this.

I wonder if GDPR affects Twitter in this case and what % of their revenue can be taken as a penalty for treating users like shit.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#159
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Better not be openly gay in Russia! Or openly gay 15 years ago and have them scrape old data and find out.

I think everyone here is misinterpreting what I meant, and I take full responsibility for that.

I think we thought of computers and the internet as our allies in privacy. They are not. They are our enemies.

I think we should stop trusting computers, any computers, as much as we possibly can.

Especially if you're in a minority that your government may try to punish.

Re: Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

#160
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is an incredibly oppressive, totalitarian way to put things. This is literally Big Brother thinking, which says a lots about the core values of Google. You have to act exclusively in the way that society deems acceptable. Even in privacy, in places you seem safe, even in your own home, with friends or family, because someone, some device, may be watching you at any time, opening you to the judgment of others and…

I think everyone here is misinterpreting what I meant, and I take full responsibility for that.

I think we thought of computers and the internet as our allies in privacy. They are not. They are our enemies.

I think we should stop trusting computers, any computers, as much as we possibly can.

Especially if you're in a minority that your government may try to punish.

We ARE in an oppressive surveillance state. Our government is tracking us. Every business is tracking us.

I highly recommend the novel "Daemon" and sequel "Freedom" by Daniel Suarez. He's a former Security consultant, who wanted to wake people up to how fragile our digital infrastructure is.

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