Twitter Has Been Keeping Your “deleted” Direct Messages For Years

Apparently, delete does not really mean delete, at least for Twitter users. Twitter let its users delete their direct messages. The recipient still gets to decide whether they want to delete the messages or not. However, it turns out that those deleted DMs or direct messages are not entirely removed, as stated by Karan Saini, a security researcher.

Although it is shown on Twitter that the messages were deleted, they are still being kept by Twitter, even those from years back. Users can gain access to this just by downloading their account’s archived data from the platform. Saini further confirms that it is possible to obtain messages from suspended or deleted accounts.

In Twitter’s privacy policy, it claims that users who want to leave the platform temporarily or permanently can “deactivate or delete” their accounts. After 30 days, the account, along with all of its data, disappears. But apparently, what Saini discovers goes against Twitter’s claim.

However, the data seems to be available only to users who initiated or received the messages. But this does not look good for Twitter when what the company does actually goes against its own policy. A spokesperson of the company stated that Twitter was “looking into this further to ensure we have considered the entire scope of the issue.”

Storing direct messages (DMs) for years may result in the company being put in a legal grey area at a time of new data protection laws of Europe, which lets users demand their data be deleted.

Companies may receive a fine of up to 4% of their annual turnover if they violate GDPR rules.

Neil Brown, who is an internet, tech, and telecoms working at the U.K law firm Decoded Legal, said that there’s no restriction for users to ask for the delete of their data. It is their rights to do so.

This issue is a great reminder for Internet users that, nothing is really gone on the Internet.