Twitter has a Binary Privacy Setting, are Users Aware of How It Works?

TL;DR

This study investigates Twitter users' awareness of how account privacy settings affect information and tweet visibility, revealing gaps in understanding despite general awareness of profile and tweet visibility.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into user awareness of Twitter's privacy model and highlights confusion around interaction visibility, especially with protected accounts.

Findings

Users are aware of profile and tweet visibility

Confusion exists around topic and interaction visibility

Only 31% knew replies by public accounts to protected tweets are public

Abstract

Twitter accounts are public by default, but Twitter gives the option to create protected accounts, where only approved followers can see their tweets. The publicly visible information changes based on the account type and the visibility of tweets also depends solely on the poster's account type which can cause unintended disclosures especially when users interact. We surveyed 336 Twitter users to understand users' awareness of account information visibility, as well as the tweet visibility when users interact. We find that our participants are aware of the visibility of their profile information and individual tweets. However, the visibility of followed topics, lists, and interactions with protected accounts is confusing. Only 31% of the participants were aware that a reply by a public account to a protected account's tweet would be publicly visible. Surprisingly, having a protected account does not result in a better understanding of the account information or tweet visibility.