Is Your "Protected Tweet" Google Protected?

A number of reports have come out warning that there is a security vulnerability in Twitter that enables anyone to access protected tweets via Google.

It was found that you can view almost all the tweets of an account if you enter "site:twitter.com/username" (replace username with the Twitter name) in the Google search engine. Inevitably, this caused an alarm among Twitter users that value their privacy.

This security hole is able to be exploited, thanks to Google's search bots which specialize in surfing the web for new pages. However, directly accessing a protected Twitter account is literally impossible at the moment. By entering 'twitter.com' and a user's name, you are able to get a sneak preview of what an individual has been up to. For example, when you enter "site:twitter.com/billclinton" in the search engine you will get a glimpse of what has been on Bill Clinton's mind, including his depression.

The results page will present you with a list of logged tweets. Surprisingly, tweets that seem to have been removed from a hidden account may also partially be displayed. Fortunately for some Twitter users, cnet.com reported that the situation is not as bad as we think. Apparently Google is not displaying 'protected tweets' but is indexing all 'public tweets', including tweets from profiles that were originally public but are now private.

So if you have always had your Twitter profile on private, you can relax. But if at some point in your life your Twitter account was public, I am afraid the tweets you made during that 'public' period will remain in Google's index to be viewed by curious individuals. In essence, Twitter has done its part with regards to user profile security and users can rest assured that their 'private tweets' are indeed private.