‘Twitter saves direct messages deleted by users’

Deleted direct messages exchanged on Twitter actually persist on Twitter’s servers, a security researcher discovered. The data of deleted accounts also remains.

The find comes from security researcher Karan Saini, who shared his findings with TechCrunch. He found that his deleted private messages could still be found on Twitter’s servers, something that came to light when he requested information about his accounts.

A test by TechCrunch subsequently revealed that the deleted data will be stored on Twitter’s servers for years to come. Twitter itself states in its documentation that with deleted accounts there is only a short period in which the data can still be found. In a response, a spokesperson for the social network said that the incident is being looked into, but a substantive response was not given.

Users can see for themselves what data Twitter has collected about them by requesting the account information. The data can be requested in the settings.