Twitter Privacy Best Practices
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Remove as much of your personal information from your Twitter account as you can get away with. You want to avoid providing unknown followers with enough information to link up your Twitter account with any other SNSs that you may be using .
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Turn off your Tweet location. Its never a good idea to let too many people know when youre not at home. Remember that its easier to pick up followers on Twitter than it is to make friends on Facebook. Dont provide complete strangers with your location .
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Turn on the Protect my tweets feature. It wont protect you from any followers that youve already picked up but it will allow you to approve any new followers that appear. Get rid of any unknown followers you already have by clicking on the gear icon next to the followers alias and selecting Remove .
Henry Dalziel, in, 2015
The screenshot we have on the slide is from a Twitter account by Glenn Wilkinson from SensePost. Glenn is one of the lead developers of Snoopy, the tool we mentioned earlier. Glenn and I were teaching a course a few years ago, where one of the components was open source intelligence. As part of his material, Glenn wanted to give an example to our class and he just randomly picked a CEO of a company in the United States. Within a few minutes, he was able to find that individuals:
Thomas Heverin, Lisl Zach, in, 2012
Deactivating Your Twitter Account
When you delete your Twitter account, it goes through a period of deactivation. This option is available on the “Account Settings” page on the Twitter website your account cannot be deactivated from a mobile device. When deactivated, your account is removed from the website but still available on Twitter’s database. Your account information can be retrieved for up to 30 days after you delete it.
Twitter Will Delete Your Account After 30 Days
Unlike Facebook, which will retain your deactivated account indefinitely, Twitter will delete your account if you dont reactivate it within 30 days. Now, this wont come as a nasty surprise or something Twitter warns you very clearly during the deactivation process. You will also get email alerts when the deactivation period approaches 30 days. Still, something to keep in mind if youre considering staying off the Internet for more than a month.
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Take A Twitter Break With Full Confidence
If you want to take a break from Twitter but dont want to stay away from the platform forever, deactivating is a good idea. While users might not be able to interact with you while youre gone, they can do so as normal when you come back.
If you choose to take a break, remember that you can only stay deactivated for 30 successive days. Afterward, your account information is gone forever. So, if youre planning to stay away for longer, remember to reactivate and deactivate again intermittently.
What Happens When You Deactivate

When you deactivate your Twitter account, users cannot access your profile until you reactivate. In the beginning, your name may show up in search bars. When they click on your profile, however, the page that loads will say that the account is no longer available.
After taking your account down, you will also no longer appear in users following lists.
As for your DMs, they will also disappear once you deactivate. They will show up again if you return, but if you dont, they will be permanently deleted.
Your posts will also disappear from users feeds. If someone has retweeted or liked the content you shared, they will no longer see these once youve deactivated.
The same is true if a third-party website has embedded your content on one of its pages. And if someone has quote-tweeted you, the link in their post will click through to a message that the tweet is no longer available.
Posts will become visible again if you choose to return to the platform. But if you dont within 30 days, theyre gone forever.
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How To Recover Your Password If The Twitter Account Is Suspended
To be able to recover your password, you simply access Twitter and go to the part that says log in. But since the password has been forgotten, you must go to the part that says, did you forget your password?
Upon entering this section, you will be taken to a window called Change password, in which a bar will appear with the words Find your Twitter account. There you must enter the email or phone number affiliated with Twitter.
Once you enter the requested data to recover the password, you will receive a message with a code that you must enter the system to verify the verification and change the password.
Now you can update the password to a new one. With the new password, you will try to enter the account normally as you always do. And it is there where you will see that the Twitter account is suspended. You can now conclude that you must take the appropriate measures to be able to reactivate again.
Some Of Your Data May Not Be Restored At All
48 hours passed, and not a single thing had been restored, so I set out to contact an actual person at Twitter. Its notoriously hard to find someone to talk to at a free online service company , and thankfully that wasnt the case here. I found a contact form quite easily, and sent an email to The Twitter Support Institution. An email from Cheerful Twitter Employee arrived the next day saying everything was fixed. I am impress, Twitter!
Except, that wasnt really the case. My followers and following lists were back, my timeline was flowing like butter again, myno, that was it. Mentions, images, and favorites still missing. I sent another email stating this, didnt get any answer for three days, so I emailed again. Cheerful Twitter Employee promptly closed the support ticket and let me know that Twitter engineers are on it, and I need not check back. Heres a snapshot of the full conversation. None of the missing data has been restored since.
I want to be optimistic, and hope that the Twitter engineers will indeed fix this issue one day. Then again, I have been hopeful of getting Login Approvals in my Facebook account for over a year, and I still dont have it.
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How To Deactivate And Reactivate Twitter
Do you lose all your followers when you reactivate Twitter?
No, you dont lose all your followers when you reactivate Twitter. If you have been inactive on Twitter for more than 6 months, your account will be placed in a read-only mode. This means that you cant post tweets, but your followers can still see your profile and send you messages. To reactivate your account, you need to log in to Twitter and follow the instructions.
Does deactivating Twitter delete everything?
No, deactivating Twitter does not delete everything. Deactivating Twitter just removes your account from the site. Your tweets will still be on the site, but you will not be able to log into your account or see them.
Does deactivating Twitter delete your tweets?
Yes, deactivating your Twitter account will delete all of your tweets.
What happens when you deactivate Twitter temporarily?
When you deactivate Twitter temporarily, your profile is hidden from other users and you are not able to post or tweet. Your account remains inactive until you reactivate it.
What does a deactivated Twitter look like?
A deactivated Twitter account looks very similar to a regular, active Twitter account. The only difference is that the user has chosen to remove their profile from the site. This means that their tweets and followers will no longer be visible on the site.
What does a deactivated Twitter account look like?Is deactivating the same as deleting?How long after deactivating Twitter does it delete?
How To Delete The Twitter App
If you’re not ready to delete your Twitter account but want to take a break from the site, you can delete the app from your device without deleting your entire account.
, hold your finger down on the app icon and tap “Uninstall,” or to hide the app, drag and drop it in your app drawer.
, hold your finger down on the app icon and tap “Remove App” then “Delete App,” or to move the app to your App Library, tap “Remove App” then “Remove from Home Screen.”
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Your Account Data Will Not Be Restored Immediately
I deactivated Twitter on 23rd November, but was back a day later to tweet some crap . When I logged in, all my user lists were empty . It didnt bother me much because my timeline was still updating. Plus, Twitter had warned about delays in data restoration.
After tweeting the aforementioned crap, regret set in and I deactivated my account again . I reactivated my account about ten days later, and again found all my lists were empty. No big deal, because delays! But things were different this time my timeline was completely dead. I actually had 0 followers and was following 0 people.
As I looked around, I found more missing stuff. All the mentions were gone from my Interactions tab . All the images I had uploaded were gone . Worst of all, the 800+ tweets I had favorited were also gone . I use Twitter as a complementary bookmark service, so losing all my favorites was a bummer. Again, I did not pay too much attention to all this, because Twitter says it can take up to 24 hours for your data to be restored.
What Happens To Your Tweets
While Twitter has no control over search engines, screenshots, or other websites that mirror or repost and archive content, all your tweets are deleted from the Twitter website and apps 30 days after deactivating your account. If you want to stop your tweets from being seen by a wide audience without deactivating your account, choose to Go Private instead.
Taking your account private makes it so only your followers can read your tweets. If you want to get rid of your followers, you need to block them. Deactivating might be your best option if you have a lot of followers.
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How To Deactivate A Twitter Account
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According to social media usage statistics, Twitter has more than 330 million active monthly users. The number is enviable however, some of those users might just need a break. Although the platform is one of the most convenient ways to stay in touch with your friends, get your memes, and keep track of the breaking news, Twitter can also be addictive and filled with misleading information.
If youre ready to say farewell to the 280-character social network but arent sure what your options are, heres a detailed guide on how to deactivate your Twitter account.
What Happens If You Deactivate And Reactivate Your Twitter Account

As we have already mentioned, deactivating your Twitter account is convenient for when you are not able to focus on it. Once you decide to do this, your account, together with your information such as your Tweets, likes, and following/followers lists, disappears from the site.
If you notice your followers/following numbers fluctuate dont worry! It usually takes up to 24 hours for your account to go back to normal and for your data, such as your Tweets, followers, likes, etc., to be fully restored. Once that period passes, your account will be fully restored and you can go back to tweeting just like you did before you decided to take a short break.
If more than 48 hours have passed and your account is still not back to normal, you can contact for further assistance. Clicking on the link provided will take you to Twitters Help Center. There, they will ask you How can we help you with your account? two times, and both times you should choose answers related to reactivation, that is, Im trying to reactivate my account and I need help reactivating my account.
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Deactivating Your Twitter Account: Everything You Need To Know
Once youve deactivated Twitter, the platform will place your profile data in a queue for permanent deletion. However, if you return within 30 days, your account wont be deleted.
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But after the 30-day mark has passed, all of your data is deleted, and you can no longer retrieve your account. If you want to return when this happens, youll need to sign up again.
Every time you reactivate, the previous period you were deactivated for resets. So, if you plan to take a break for longer than a month but also intend to return, you can reactivate and deactivate straight away to avoid permanent deletion.
Lea Use Of Twitter To Share Information
From analyzing the public Twitter profiles of 30 LEAs in large US cities with active public Twitter accounts, the researchers found a total of 10,931 police authored tweets, 62,226 followers of the police Twitter accounts, and 3,991 lists with the police accounts named . The researchers found that LEAs with active public Twitter accounts come from larger cities compared with LEAs that do not have Twitter accounts . The average LEA has had an account for 10 months, authored 364 tweets, has 2,074 followers, and is listed in 133 lists.1
Figure 2.1. Percent of law enforcement agency authored tweets by content type
LEAs also used Twitter to provide the public with information about the department , including individual officers, and about events . These types of tweets can help let the public know that there is more to the department than just crime information. However, the overwhelming majority of tweets authored by LEAs consist of one-way communications to the public only 4.1 percent of Tweets fell into the Reply/Mention category in which a member of the LEA responded to other Twitter users publicly on Twitter or mentioned other Twitter users usernames.
Figure 2.2. LEA use of communication technologies
David J. Fiander, in, 2012
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How To Restore Your Suspended Twitter Account
If your account has been suspended because of spam, abusive content, or the risk of hacking, you can still reactivate it.
If you think there has been a mistake, you can reactivate it by logging in and following the steps outlined on the page.
This scenario may be because your account was suspended due to the risk of hacking that has nothing to do with you.
If your account has been suspended because of abusive content or if its blocked, youre going to have to verify that you are its owner.
If you have broken Twitter rules, most of the functions will be limited. You can find everything you need to unlock your account on this .
Now you know what to do if you deactivate your Twitter account and want to get it back before 30 days have gone by.
If youre going to get started on social media with the little blue bird, take a look at the .
Reusing An Account Username Or Email
There are a few reasons you may want to deactivate a Twitter account that have nothing to do with the account itself. Lets say you want to change your Twitter accounts username to better fit your business or change the email associated with the account to a new business email. You dont have to deactivate your account and make a new one. Instead, you can change both of those details in your account settings.
If you want to create a new account with your existing accounts username or email address, you have to change them on your current account. When you deactivate your account, it voids your current username and email address so you cant use them for another account. Instead, change the username and email address before you deactivate the account and save it to confirm the change. Then you can deactivate the account and use the original username for a different account.
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When You Deactivate Your Twitter Account
Twitter allows you to deactivate your account without deleting it. Deactivating Twitter is convenient for periods when you arent able to focus on your Twitter account or you are stepping away from the business. When you deactivate your account, all your posts, tweets, likes and comments disappear from the site for up to 30 days. This process can take minutes, or it can take a few days, depending on how prolific your Twitter presence was.
How To Reactivate Twitter Account After 30 Days
Did you decide to take a break from Twitter and deactivated your account? Or did you decide to quit using Twitter but couldnt resist yourself, and now you want to get your account back? Youve landed the right page!
This post highlights the detailed process of how to reactivate a Twitter account. Check it out to get your deactivated account up and running again!
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For How Long Can You Reactivate Your Old Twitter Account
Twitter lets you restart using your old account after reactivation as long as its within 30 days of deactivating your account on the platform. Your Twitter account information is only preserved when you reactivate your Twitter profile within 30 days of deactivation.
If youre trying to reactivate an account after 30 days of having deactivated it, you will no longer be able to reactivate your account. At this point, your only option is to sign up for a new account on Twitter which you can do by clicking here.
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