Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My responses to private twitter DMs go public

I got a series of texts yesterday from a number I didn't recognise but a name I did.
So I responded. And among my responses I included my gmail address.

It was at this point colleagues started asking why I was posting such odd tweets. "Sure". Was one.

Friends then started sending me direct messages asking if I realised I was tweeting my email address.
These too arrived as text messages.

It was then the penny dropped.

The texts contained private DMs to me. When I replied to the text it created and published a tweet open for all to see.

Dangerous.

Luckily I'm open with my gmail address (it is shown at the top of this blog) but what if I'd texted something in response I had planned to keep private? The mind boggles.

I had received no warning that any condition on my account, re alerts, had changed. Zip.

When I checked on Twitter the relevant devices page said only Vodafone customers got text alerts (a UK speciality).

News stories I was subsequently pointed at suggested the O2 text/Twitter plan wasn't meant to start until August.

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

O2 and Twitter; I await your response with my trust in you somewhat compromised in the mean time.

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5 comments:

  1. Phil Sheard7/28/2009 7:57 am

    I got this yesterday too David.

    Thankfully I knew what was going on for two reasons:
    - I used SMS with Twitter before it was removed so understood how this worked
    - I knew O2 updates were due from their Twitter updates

    If people joined in the period when SMS was off, they won't likely have turned on mobile updates as they don't work (might be some edge cases that differ here) so it's jut us relatively-early-adopters to worry about.

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  2. JP7/28/2009 10:20 am

    Hi David
    My name's JP and part of O2's communication team - you're right, the messages you received were from Twitter. We recently signed an agreement with them to bring Twitter messages to customers via free SMS.

    When we announced the deal, we initially said that the messages would start coming through in August. On Monday however we found that we were ready to go early and announced on our Twitter channel, @o2, that we'd be switching the service on early.

    It sounds like your messages started coming through as you entered your mobile details into Twitter. You can see a full list of the Twitter text commands, including how to send direct messages via SMS, at http://is.gd/1Qbs8.

    Thanks
    JP

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  3. David Cushman7/28/2009 12:25 pm

    JP, thanks for the speedy response. But I think you miss the point. If I receive a text without any prior warning that twitter dms are now being delivered by text, I'm likely to responsd with a text in answer. The mechanic means that my response is broadcast. So my answer to a private dm becomes public and that is an issue 02 and twitter should address.

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  4. kelvin newman7/29/2009 2:37 pm

    no offence david I know you know your stuff but surely you realised it was a short code not a rela phone number?

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  5. David Cushman7/29/2009 2:56 pm

    Hi kelvin. Experience on an iPhone makes that less likely
    y to spot when multi-tasking. Point is a reply to a private message should not be broadcast. It's a structural mistake to have same shortcode for you to tweet openly as it is to receive private messages, no?

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