How To Be Safe On Twitter
I’ve been asked by several people to put together this article. As such, if you would like to contribute to it, suggest improvements or changes, or even write a similar article for me to post, leave a comment and let me know!
So, you got yourself a Twitter account. It is the big craze, after all! But you’re not sure about all of the other Twitter users. Or perhaps you want to keep an increased level of privacy around your account.
Well, this article, hopefully, will tell you how you can keep yourself safe on Twitter!
Now, why do we even need to consider Twitter safety? Well, perhaps you want to keep your activity away from the public eye. Perhaps you wish to keep yourself safe from possible predators or other ominous folks.
What are some ways that you can protect your tweets and privacy?
- Protect Your Tweets – You don’t have to have your tweets open to the public. There is a built in feature in your Twitter settings that lets you make them private. The only way people can read your tweets is to be approved to follow you. This not only protects what you say but also who can read your tweets. This is the biggest step!
- Watch What You Tweet – This rule applies to anything you do online. With the increase in Twitter usage, it seems easier and easier to just post anything. Yet, that is exactly what you do not want to do! Even if you have protected your tweets, do you want them to know about where you exactly live, or where you will be at an exact time? It is always better to play it safe!
- Use The Block Function – Do you have some shady characters that are following you that you really don’t want to see what you write? If you’re wary of certain followers, you can safely block them. This isn’t a sure-fire way of keeping people away from your tweets, but it can help you manage trouble-users.
- Remember Your Audience – Even if you have protected your tweets, there is the potential that someone will re-tweet you. With that in mind, any of your tweets could potentially be made public. Therefore, if you’re going to tweet something, make sure that it is something you wouldn’t mind someone in the public seeing. This goes in line with point #2, but it still is different.
In the end, common sense is what wins out with Twitter. Make sure that you’re always tweeting with your full thinking faculties. Otherwise, you may find yourself embarrassed, frustrated, or worse.
It’s quite possible that I missed some options for privacy protection. If I have, please leave a comment! As I stated at the beginning, I’d be willing to post guest articles as well, should anyone want to write additional material.
This is a great (and concise) guide. A lot of people start the Twitter adventure without any other web social interaction whatsoever, and they’re not aware of the dangers and/or troubles that could arise by the use of this tools.
Although something I can remark, there is no need to be completely prevented and closed to everyone, some of the contents you post may be good reference to some people (like links you found, or images you found in a webpage or web-photo-album).
Also, be aware of the famous Twitter bots that like to follow people, just to lure them to harmful webpages or offering some weird and bad services. Block them at once!
Also remember, you can delete any of your tweets, they won’t be saved, they won’t be shown in your friends timelines, however, somebody could see it if you didn’t delete it quickly.
As Jeren wrote: use your Common Sense.
This is a great (and concise) guide. A lot of people start the Twitter adventure without any other web social interaction whatsoever, and they’re not aware of the dangers and/or troubles that could arise by the use of this tools.
Although something I can remark, there is no need to be completely prevented and closed to everyone, some of the contents you post may be good reference to some people (like links you found, or images you found in a webpage or web-photo-album).
Also, be aware of the famous Twitter bots that like to follow people, just to lure them to harmful webpages or offering some weird and bad services. Block them at once!
Also remember, you can delete any of your tweets, they won’t be saved, they won’t be shown in your friends timelines, however, somebody could see it if you didn’t delete it quickly.
As Jeren wrote: use your Common Sense.
Thanks for the comment!
I threw in the option to lock out your tweets because some on Twitter may be using the service just to communicate with a group of friends and may or may not be wanting to share their tweets with the world. Yes, if you have a cool link, a limited few can see it. But I was hoping to give options that people on all levels of the ‘privacy spectrum’ could relate to. Whether someone wants the world to read their tweets or they just want five friends to do so, I hope this article is helpful to those people in some way.
Thanks for the comment!
I threw in the option to lock out your tweets because some on Twitter may be using the service just to communicate with a group of friends and may or may not be wanting to share their tweets with the world. Yes, if you have a cool link, a limited few can see it. But I was hoping to give options that people on all levels of the ‘privacy spectrum’ could relate to. Whether someone wants the world to read their tweets or they just want five friends to do so, I hope this article is helpful to those people in some way.
You can also have two accounts: one private- “just for friends” and one more public, for sharing with the world.
Just be SURE not to mix them up! [totally different usernames and avatara help a lot!]
You can also have two accounts: one private- “just for friends” and one more public, for sharing with the world.
Just be SURE not to mix them up! [totally different usernames and avatara help a lot!]
Definitely! I’ll add in that tip into a follow-up post later on.
Definitely! I’ll add in that tip into a follow-up post later on.
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