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Are your tweets protected?

The L.A. Times released information today regarding a loophole for protected Twitter accounts. While other Twitter users cannot view protected Twitter accounts without asking for permission, Google appears to bypass that entirely. In fact, a Google search can even reveal some of the protected tweets of deleted accounts.

The Google searches can’t reveal the entirety of tweets unless they are short, but information can still be revealed in the small snippets. Just put “site:twitter.com/username” into Google, replacing the word “username” with that of someone with protected tweets, and view away. For example, everyone has been delighted to see what kind of mood Bill Clinton is in.

Bill Clinton is probably sad you can see his tweets

Fake Bill Clinton is probably sad you can see his tweets.

Reality check: While the “breach” sent tweeps scrambling and ranting, there appears to be nothing to fear. It seems so far that Google is only showing tweets that were public before the account was later privatized. As for final word on whether or not our protected tweets are safe, we’ll just have to wait to hear from Twitter.

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