Make a search on your Twitter user name. You might find some new, some old and some badly spelt tweets you deleted immediately. Some might even be tweets you rather forget about - forever. Things you never would like a future employer to read. But they are there….almost as impossible to wipe out.
A few days ago I wanted to check up how to remove tweets from Google's index. Sadly the instruction I found at Twitter was not working. You need to own the website to manage to follow that instruction. And since I obviously do not own Twitter the text was useless. And I wondered mockingly how many people can use that instruction? How many of us owns Twitter?
Then I tried to report the failing text at Twitter support. The only way to do so was to do an abuse/privacy report. It felt like over kill but frustrated I did. But first I read Twitters privacy statement.
Twitter says in the page you once signed when you entered this world “what’s yours is yours – you own your content”. Indeed – but you seems to have no control over your content. I wonder how many people have understood this? Read more an you will understand why...
We are not paid to delete tweets!
Then I tried to report the failing text at Twitter support. The only way to do so was to do an abuse/privacy report. It felt like over kill but frustrated I did. But first I read Twitters privacy statement.
Twitter says in the page you once signed when you entered this world “what’s yours is yours – you own your content”. Indeed – but you seems to have no control over your content. I wonder how many people have understood this? Read more an you will understand why...
We are not paid to delete tweets!
Earlier this spring I found out all my tweets were cloned by Twitter partners like topsy.com. I also found out they did not delete the content when I deleted something at Twitter.
In April I locked my Twitter profile for a while – I needed some privacy. But all these third parties did not hide my old tweets. I had to be in touch with every third-party – if possible – to make them delete their content. I decided it was not worth that effort. I have never written anything I feel ashamed of. I was only looking over my integrity. At one time I had a nice chat with the staff at topsy.com. They told me frankly and honestly “we are not paid to delete tweets”. But they provided a synch feature.
In April I locked my Twitter profile for a while – I needed some privacy. But all these third parties did not hide my old tweets. I had to be in touch with every third-party – if possible – to make them delete their content. I decided it was not worth that effort. I have never written anything I feel ashamed of. I was only looking over my integrity. At one time I had a nice chat with the staff at topsy.com. They told me frankly and honestly “we are not paid to delete tweets”. But they provided a synch feature.
At the same time I found a very long distant contact’s Twitter profile at another Twitter partner. In Google's search index there was frozen image of one of his friends friendslist. That friend was one of my colleagues. My name and some more colleagues were there in the list together with 80 more persons. In Sweden you actually need permission from the The Swedish Data Inspection Board to make a register like that one. But at some parts of Internet - it is for "free".
What if my friend had decided to lock his profile of integrity reasons? How would he have felt if he found this list where all his contacts were exposed to the whole world?
Back to yesterday evening
Within 12 hours I got answer from Twitter support. This is what they said:
JuneClippers, Oct 26 03:26 pm (PDT):
Hello,When you protect your account, all tweets posted after protection will be private: unlisted in Twitter search and 3rd party applications. All tweets posted before protection, however, will still be listed in search engines and 3rd party applications. Twitter does not have the ability to remove content on other websites other than Twitter.com.
Thanks,
JuneClippers
Twitter Trust and Safety
I really appreciated the quick answer. I imagine it is the result of using the “abused line”. But there was not a single word about the failing page about how to remove content from Google's cashes. The page is still alive today.
My conclusion
If you ever regret something you have written and have a some bad luck - it will be impossible to remove. Google index will stay there at least six month after the source is deleted. And since Twitter partners do not delete their copies - you mistakes will be there forever. Both at Twitter third-party and Google.
This means:
- if you one day decide to lock you Twitter for non-friends because of integrity reasons – all you have written until that day will still be readable
- if you choose to delete a tweet - it might be there "for ever"
- the day you die - your texts will be there. Impossible for your relatives to delete. A scenario I recently have experienced. It might happen to you or your friends next time.
This can get worse
If you now have started to feel some concern about your Twitter privacy...listen carefully. Anyone can set up an alert on your tweets and get the result straight into their mailbox. Then it is no use trying to delete “bad” tweets. Your failures are already sent away. They might also be sent to some RSS feeders caching information. For example Google Reader caches almost for ever since it uses Google search caches for it's contents.
But absolutely worse scenario - if you are concerned about your integrity & safety - is the SMS auditing of tweets. In just a few minutes someone can show up at your geolocation. I hope it is a friend to you. And even if you do not tweet with geolocation - this is an excellent stalking utility. Every step you take at Twitter may be watched in the same moment by people who perhaps not is your friends.
I wonder if people know about these integrity problems at Twitter? Is this the way we want it to work? Do we want all our tweets cut out in stone?
My answer is no!
I do not want my tweets cloned to third parties and audited by SMS or mails or stored in any kind of cache. I want an integrity option in my profile where I allow or disallow cloning, alerts and RSS feeders. Meanwhile I recommend all to think over their Twitter philosophy.
I do not want my tweets cut out of stone.
I want to have some control over what Twitter agrees is mine.
I want some Twitter Integrity!
What about you?
More information
To do a complete search over what Tweets are indexed at Twitter use this command
site:twitter.com 'your username'
Twitter's privacy statement
Twitter's terms of service
Twitters page about how to remove from Google Index
SMS Subscriptions
Due to Twitters interface you cannot have an SMS subscription without being allowed to follow that person. How twitter partners is set up - I do not know.
RSS feeders
RSS feeders can be enabled weather you are friends or not. Google Reader is cashing information "for ever". Things I deleted months ago are still readable at Google reader since they are based on ordinary indexing schedule. I guess it can take up to six months before old deleted tweets are flushed out.
It has to be fun, or else we cannot make it
English is not my native language. I hope you can manage
I do not want my tweets cut out of stone.
I want to have some control over what Twitter agrees is mine.
I want some Twitter Integrity!
What about you?
More information
To do a complete search over what Tweets are indexed at Twitter use this command
site:twitter.com 'your username'
Twitter's privacy statement
Twitter's terms of service
Twitters page about how to remove from Google Index
SMS Subscriptions
Due to Twitters interface you cannot have an SMS subscription without being allowed to follow that person. How twitter partners is set up - I do not know.
RSS feeders
RSS feeders can be enabled weather you are friends or not. Google Reader is cashing information "for ever". Things I deleted months ago are still readable at Google reader since they are based on ordinary indexing schedule. I guess it can take up to six months before old deleted tweets are flushed out.
It has to be fun, or else we cannot make it
English is not my native language. I hope you can manage
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