On Monday, Twitter revealed that a bug in the platform allowed a company partner to access the location data of a portion of its users. The bug only affected iOS users, whom the company was quick to notify.
The affected users reportedly had more than one account. Twitter somehow collected users' location information, even though the users had not opted in to share their location.
After the information was collected, it was shared with a Twitter partner. This means that the partner could see where all these users were. However, the social networking platform claims that it did not report the exact location, but the zip code or city.
Therefore, no one could use this data to track the victim's movements or learn their exact address.
Twitter also confirms that its partner could not link the locations it viewed to specific individuals. Only location data was available, and no other user account information. “No one would have been able to learn identity ,” Twitter said. “In addition, the data was not retained by the partner.”
In its official statement, the company says it has confirmed that the location data was only on its systems for a short period of time. It was then deleted, as per the process. It goes on to say: “We have resolved this issue and are working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”.
Following the incident, Twitter notified people whose accounts were affected to say the issue had been resolved, and asked users to check to make sure everything was okay.
Twitter did not explain exactly how the bug occurred or how long users' location data was being shared. It also did not name the partner. The platform said it does not plan to disclose that information.
Twitter has given users the option to fill out a contact form and get in touch with the platform's Data Protection Officer if they want to ask questions about the incident.
