Twitter Bug Lets Fleets Be Viewed and Downloaded Long After Expiration
Twitter's new ephemeral tweets, or "fleets," have been hit by a bug that allows them to be accessed long after their supposed 24-hour expiration time, less than a week after the feature launched.
Fleets are short stories made up of photos or videos with overlaying text. Much like stories on Instagram or Facebook, fleets are located at the top of the Twitter timeline.
According to Techcrunch, the bug allowed fleets to be viewed and downloaded by other users without notifying their creator. Details of the bug were posted in a series of tweets over the weekend. Twitter soon acknowledged the issue and says a fix is on the way.
“We're aware of a bug accessible through a technical workaround where some Fleets media URLs may be accessible after 24 hours," a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch. "We are working on a fix that should be rolled out shortly."
The workaround refers to a developer app that could reportedly scrape fleets from public accounts through Twitter's API. However, once Twitter's fix is applied, URLs for fleets won't work whether they're active or expired.
Twitter says it doesn't delete fleets from its servers for up to 30 days, and it may retain fleets for longer if they violate its rules.
Related Stories
Twitter is testing a new timeline layout in which photos are stretched to the edge of the display with no horizontal margins, mimicking the design layout of popular photo and video sharing apps, such as Instagram.
The new layout was shared by Jane Manchun Wong on Twitter, who often uncovers what features and changes Twitter is working on behind the scenes. The change is still in testing, but ...
Twitter today announced that it has started rolling out a redesigned version of its TweetDeck Twitter client, which it has been working on since earlier this year.
The new version of TweetDeck is rolling out to a "limited number of accounts" of randomly selected people in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
According to Twitter, the new design is meant to better align with the...
Twitter continues to work on a new feature that lets users post certain tweets to a limited number of close friends in a parallel timeline on the social media platform. Previously floated in July 2021 as "Trusted Friends," the feature is now called "Flock," and will allow users to limit their audience for specific content to no more than 150 people, according to screens uncovered by mobile...
Twitter is considering letting users post select tweets for "Trusted Friends" only. That's the name of a feature the social media platform is testing that would allow users to limit the audience for specific content to a smaller circle of people.
Based on design concepts shared by the company (via TechCrunch), Trusted Friends could be a toggle that lets you indicate whether a tweet should be ...
Apple's Safari and WebKit team has asked for feedback on Twitter amid criticisms of the browser's bugs and missing support.
Jen Simmons, an Apple Evangelist and developer advocate on the Web Developer Experience team for Safari and WebKit, Tweeted that "Everyone in my mentions [is] saying Safari is the worst, it's the new IE." This led her to ask users for feedback, preferably highlighting...
A bug in WebKit's implementation of a JavaScript API called IndexedDB can reveal your recent browsing history and even your identity, according to a blog post shared on Friday by browser fingerprinting service FingerprintJS.
In a nutshell, the bug allows any website that uses IndexedDB to access the names of IndexedDB databases generated by other websites during a user's browsing session....
Twitter is planning new privacy-related features that provide users with greater control over follower lists and who can see their posts and likes, reports Bloomberg.
The plans are said to include an option to archive old tweets so that other users can't see them after a set period of time designated by the account holder (such as 30, 60, or 90 days, or a whole year), as well as the ability...
Over the weekend, we reported on a bug in WebKit's implementation of a JavaScript API called IndexedDB that can reveal your recent browsing history and even your identity, according to browser fingerprinting service FingerprintJS.
Apple has since prepared a fix for the bug, according to a WebKit commit on GitHub, but the fix will not be available to users until Apple releases macOS Monterey, ...
Popular Stories
The Apple Watch Series 8 could feature an all-new design with a flat display, according to the leaker known as "ShrimpApplePro."
In his latest video on the YouTube channel Front Page Tech, Jon Prosser highlighted information from ShrimpApplePro that suggests the Apple Watch Series 8 could feature a flat display in what seems to be a design originally rumored for the Apple Watch Series 7. ...
While Apple's early M1-based Macs can only officially support a single external display, there are ways around the limitation. Anker is launching a new 10-in-1 USB-C docking station today which delivers just that.
The Anker 563 USB-C dock includes two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort port, and it leverages DisplayLink to carry multiple video signals over a single connection. Given that this hub...
Apple today released macOS Monterey 12.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Monterey operating system that launched in October 2021. macOS Monterey 12.4 comes over two months after the launch of macOS Monterey 12.3, an update that added Universal Control.
The macOS Monterey 12.4 update can be downloaded on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System...
WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow users to "silently" leave group chats hosted by the messaging platform instead of all members of the group being notified when they do.
As it stands, when someone leaves a group chat, WhatsApp announces their exit to the entire group, making the act of leaving very public. It's not possible right now to leave a group quietly, but WhatsApp...
Apple today shared a new ad highlighting iPhone privacy features like App Tracking Transparency and Mail Privacy Protection that are designed to give users more transparency and control when it comes to their personal data being collected.
The ad revolves around a young woman named Ellie who discovers that her personal data is being sold at an auction house, with bids being placed on her...
Apple's AirPods ruptured the eardrums of a 12-year-old boy in 2020 when a loud Amber Alert was issued, according to a lawsuit filed against Apple in California (via Law360).
The child, identified as B.G. in the filing, was watching a movie on Netflix on his iPhone in 2020 while wearing AirPods Pro. The AirPods Pro were allegedly set at a low volume, but an Amber Alert sounded without warning ...
Apple retail employees at around 100 stores will need to go back to wearing a mask while working, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is mandating masks for employees again due to a rising number of COVID cases across the United States.
Customers who visit an Apple Store are not required to wear a mask at this time, but Apple is continuing to recommend masks for all Apple Store...
Top Rated Comments
I am not a Twitter user - just have a look when others post about tweets. But I am trying to get my head around why people would use them? When there are so many ways of recording them - such as a simple screenshot.