As a service devoted to short and sweet communication, the ways for publicly embarrassing yourself are blissfully few, beyond tweeting something asinine. Still, Twitter’s relatively barebones functionality offers a few interesting pitfalls worth addressing.
The most obvious is that, unlike Facebook, your tweets are by default viewable by the entire world (that’s the idea), and so anything you post can (and if you’re any good, will) be shared across the globe instantly. But just because you share your thoughts doesn’t mean you give up all rights to privacy. Here are a few things to protect.
1. Stop Broadcasting Your Exact Location
Twitter’s geotagging feature shouts out your location when you post updates. That can be risky behavior not only for your privacy and that of those you tweet about at the time, but at the extremes could be an issue for your physical safety (or a trusty method for enterprising robbers to case your crib). Here’s how to turn that off.
Click the Settings wheel and select Settings.
Click the big Delete All Location Information button to completely disable this feature.
You can also choose not to share your locale on a case-by-case basis.
2. Prevent Stalkers From Following You
If you’re the famous sort, or simply want a more Facebook-like functionality with Twitter, you can choose to protect your tweets. That means potential followers have to get your permission first to be blessed with your witticisms, and only they will see your tweets.
Click the Settings wheel and select Settings.
Check the box next to Protect My Tweets.
3. Unlink Your Other Accounts
The most common privacy hiccup on Twitter happens when you link your account to other social media channels. No matter what your settings are on Twitter, once you tweet something and it’s passed on to other services, your post is no longer protected. That’s a terrible thing to do to a tweet.
If you’ve made the mistake of connecting Twitter to Facebook, here’s how to unconnect yourself.
Click the Settings wheel and select Settings.
Select Profile.
Check Disconnect at the bottom of the page.
Click Save Changes.
