Twitter may have killed Vine, but the information users provided apparently lives on and some details may have been exposed.
In an announcement on Medium on Friday, May 19, Twitter warned former Vine users that an archive bug may have exposed their phone numbers and email addresses. Twitter says that it fixed the issue as soon as it became aware of it and the bug affected the Vine archive for just 24 hours. Nevertheless, there's still a chance that the bug exposed some users' details.
Vine Archive Bug: Were You Affected?
Twitter notes that it has already reached out to all Vine account holders who have been affected by this bug, provided that it has a verified email address for them on file.
This means that if you received an email from Twitter regarding Vine, your email address and phone number were exposed. If you did not receive any email of the sort, you were most likely not affected by this Vine archive bug.
For those affected by this Vine bug, Twitter says that the emails and phone numbers involved were shared with third parties "under certain circumstances." The company adds that it's not aware of any other information being compromised. That said, at least user passwords are apparently safe.
"While we have no information indicating that any user information impacted by this incident has been misused, it's always a good idea to be cautious of emails or text messages received from unknown senders," Twitter notes.
"Please keep in mind that Vine will only send communications from @twitter.com, and we will never send emails with attachments or request your password by email."
Remembering Vine
Vine was once a popular video sharing application famous for its short looping videos. The platform proved to be greatly entertaining, with funny short Vines taking over the internet. Back in 2014, Vine was one of the most popular and successful mobile apps on the market, with numerous users enjoying Vine's unique take on videos. Vine videos were similar to GIFs thanks to their short-looping format, but they also had sound to go with the footage and enhance the experience.
Twitter ultimately decided to shut it down, however, and Vine saw its demise last year. Some top Vine stars even tried to save the app, to no avail. The associated software made its way to a camera app and Twitter no longer allowed Vine users to upload new videos.
Vine Users, Beware
Although it shut down the service, Twitter still kept an archive of all Vines, leaving them visible to users on the web. That archive has now been compromised, but the impact should be limited considering that Twitter was quick to solve the issue.
To be on the safe side, Vine users who received a warning from Twitter are advised to be on the lookout for any suspicious emails. If their email addresses have been compromised, attackers might try to lure unsuspecting users with various scams and phishing attempts sent to that address. Even without any breach, however, it's still highly advisable to always avoid suspicious emails from unknown senders.
