Twitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties. Twitter considers that information an asset, and reserves the right to sell it if the company changes hands.[21]
A security vulnerability was reported on April 7 2007 by Nitesh Dhanjani & Rujith. The problem was due to Twitter's using the SMS message originator as the authentication of the user's account. Nitesh used fakemytext.com to spoof a text message, whereupon Twitter posted the message on the victim's page. This vulnerability can only be used if the victim's phone number is known.[22] Twitter introduced an optional PIN that its users can specify to authenticate SMS-originating messages within a few weeks of this discovery.
The site Qwitter [1] was created to notify users when someone who was following them has stopped.[23]
On January 5 2009, 33 high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised, and falsified messages—including sexually explicit and drug-related messages—were sent.[24][25] The accounts were compromised after a Twitter administrator's password was guessed via a dictionary attack.[26]
In media
Twitter has been used as a "social justice tool" to connect groups of people in critical situations. On April 10 2008, James Buck, a graduate journalism student at UC Berkeley, and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government protest. On his way to the police station Buck used his mobile phone to send the message “Arrested” to his 48 "followers" on Twitter. Those contacted UC Berkeley, the US Embassy in Cairo, and a number of press organizations on his behalf. Buck was able to send updates about his condition to his "followers" while being detained. He was released the next day from the Mahalla jail after the college hired a lawyer for him.[44][45]
Research reported in New Scientist magazine in May 2008 [46] found that blogs, maps, photo sites and instant messaging systems like Twitter did a better job of getting information out during emergencies such as the shootings at Virginia Tech than either the traditional news media or government emergency services. The study—performed by researchers at the University of Colorado [disambiguation needed] – also found that those using Twitter during the fires in California in October 2007 kept their followers (who were often friends and neighbors) informed of their whereabouts and of the location of various fires minute by minute. Additionally, organizations that support relief efforts are also using Twitter. The American Red Cross uses Twitter (http://twitter.com/RedCross) to exchange minute-to-minute information about local disasters, including statistics and directions.[47][48] In October, 2008 a draft US Army intelligence report identified the popular micro-blogging service as a potential terrorist tool. The report said, "Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives."[49][50] The first trade union Twitter service was launched by the news and campaigning website LabourStart in June 2008[51]
Some media outlets are also starting to use Twitter as a source of public sentiment on issues, and are using the technology in order to deliver real-time or recent-time opinions that are not sent to them directly. A specific example occurred during the CBC News television coverage of the Canadian federal election on October 14th, 2008. During the broadcast, the CBC cited a graph (produced by the Infoscape Research Lab) of items mentioned on Twitter, along with Tweets regarding Elizabeth May and Stéphane Dion, the majority of the Dion Tweets calling for him to step down in response to the election results.[citation needed]
In 2008, CNN began setting up Twitter pages for some of its anchors and reading tweets during broadcasts. Rick Sanchez and Don Lemon prominently feature updates from Twitter followers during their broadcasts.
In 2008 when the Canadian current affairs magazine Macleans released its annual year in review issue it compared Twitter in 2008 to Facebook of 2007 saying that in 2007 even old fogeys had Facebook and now in 2008 even old fogeys have Twitter.
Verslo žinios, a Lithuanian business daily, is published in the Lithuanian language, but uses Twitter in English.[52]
In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Janis Krum, a passenger on one of the ferries that rushed to help, took a picture of the downed plane as passengers were still evacuating and tweeted it via TwitPic before traditional media arrived at the scene.[53][54]
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