Twitter Security Dos And Don’Ts

Twitter is a social networking site that lets people update status messages within 140 characters. Microblogging, or “tweeting” as they are called by users, has dramatically changed the way people communicate, both in good ways and in bad. Twitter accounts are open to the public, but users have the option of making their accounts private. These two options for your Twitter security are the only ones available to users, because there is no way to filter out who sees what once they are allowed to “follow” your account. Those who have public accounts also cannot control who follows them, while those who set them to private have the luxury of accepting or ignoring “follow” requests.

But even though these are the only two options for Twitter security, there are some things that you can do as a user to make sure that your account name and password stay safe. Here are a few security do’s and don’ts for your Twitter account:

• Be wary of third party sites. Because of the dramatic rise of the popularity of Twitter, there are now practically hundreds of other sites that connect to your account – all they need are your Twitter username and password. There have already been a lot of cases of Twitter security breach because of people getting scammed into giving out their passwords. Never give out your password unless you are 100% sure that you need to give it.
  
  
• Because of the nature of Twitter posts being so personal, Twitter security is almost synonymous to personal security. You have no idea who looks at your twitter account if it is open to the public – and there is no solution to that. When it comes to your posts, don’t be too specific about important details, like your address or other things like that. This is not limited to those who have public accounts.
  
  
• Do choose a strong password. This is actually a security measure that you should take for all of your online accounts, but it is especially useful for your Twitter security because there is not much else standing in between you and hackers who just want to mess with your account.
  
  
• Keep all the really personal things to yourself. As tempting as it is to post every single heart-wrenching thing that comes into your mind, it’s probably a good idea to leave the really, really personal things for talking about with your friends in person. Avoiding talking about these things will let you avoid any chance at all of a Twitter security breach.
  
  
• Do make use of the “direct message” option that Twitter has. Although everything you post automatically goes into your public timeline, you do have the option to post a tweet that only one person sees. This is called a direct message. For sensitive things like cell phone numbers, account numbers and other personal information that will lead straight to you and your personal accounts, make use of the direct message to send these kinds of information to people who need them.
  
  
• Don’t tweet about going on vacation. This just lets people know that your house is empty and is just waiting to be robbed. It’s better to just tweet about certain things that you are doing, but not that you are leaving your home empty for the weekend.
  
  
• Never ever accept people you don’t know who send you requests. The reason why your timeline is set to private in the first place is because you don’t want people you don’t know to know too much about your personal life.

Twitter is probably the most revolutionary blogging website since the likes of Livejournal came out in the late 1990s. Even though it can be a powerful tool of information dissemination, you need to remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Use yours wisely.