Twitter Apps - Can we trust them?

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Twitter Apps - these are the 3rd party applications which interact with twitter and provide some extra/advanced services that twitter doesn't provide. One such app is Twply which sends your twitter replies to your Inbox. This is really great, whenever someone replies to me, I get notified.

There is one problem with such twitter apps. Some apps, like Twply, requires your twitter password to interact with your twitter account. There is no way these twitter apps can fetch your twitter information without your password.

Twply was launched on Thursday January 1st 2009 and sold to SitePoint in less than 24 hrs! All the data, including your twitter password is now sold to SitePoint. Nobody knows what happened to the user data and its still a mystery. The reason the service was sold was that the Twply servers were not able to handle the load and the overwhelming traffic.

Robert Scoble has called Twply "twitter spam" but launched and sold in the same day with all the user information - is this a scam?

#1 creamhackered on 02 Jan 2009 - 08:12

I'd say if you've used this service it might be time to change your password just to be sure!

(1 reply) #2 DigitalDJ on 02 Jan 2009 - 08:29

Or use a dummy password? Is your Twitter information that important?

#2.1 Rick DeNatale on 04 Jan 2009 - 00:44

DigitalDJ said,

Maybe.

Perhaps there is a connection between twply and the new phishing scourge on twitter http://bit.ly/TwitterPhish

I got a twitter direct message from a trusted friend pointing me to a blog, which ended up being a re-direct to a fake twitter login form.

I suspect that this guy might have signed up for twpy which got HIS twitter password, allowing someone to impersonate him and send direct messages.

(2 replies) #3 blackice912 on 02 Jan 2009 - 08:31

1. You can get @replies without a user password - search.twitter.com. While it is true you won't get replies from private Twitter feeds, their numbers are small compared to public Twitter users.
2. I don't think it was launched in Jan 08. I think it was launched a few days ago.

#3.1 Chaks on 02 Jan 2009 - 10:39

If you read the article, it says - "Thursday January 1st 2009"

#3.2 blackice912 on 02 Jan 2009 - 15:51

Now it does

(1 reply) #4 +WindowsNT on 02 Jan 2009 - 12:35

I don't use Twitter but if I did I would go with the same policy as on Facebook and that is not to install 3rd party Apps as you don't know if it is an ulterior motive or not. There have been some rouge apps on Facebook.

#4.1 theyarecomingforyou on 02 Jan 2009 - 17:16

Exactly. Facebook applications are generally a disaster and I only use a select few myself. It's common sense not to trust third party add-ons with personal information / passwords.

#5 VT-Vincent on 02 Jan 2009 - 13:57

Twply was launched on Thursday January 1st 2009 and sold to SitePoint in less than 24 hrs! All the data, including your twitter password is now sold to SitePoint.

It was not sold "to" Sitepoint, it was sold ON Sitepoint - they have an online auction service targeted towards selling established web sites. As such, Sitepoint does not own the user information, the actual buyer does.

#6 PsykX on 02 Jan 2009 - 20:21

I'm using different passwords every-freaking-where anyway now

You just have to choose them accordingly IMO, because it is actually impossible for me to forget one now.

#7 MtDewCodeRedFreak on 04 Jan 2009 - 01:00

Jeez - every time I see the word Twitter, it reminds me of this poem by Shel Silverstein:

"Mrs. McTwitter, the babysitter
I think she's a little bit crazy.
She thinks a babysitter's supposed
To sit upon the baby."

Lmao.

#8 icooo on 04 Jan 2009 - 13:06

If you are scared about someone having your twitter login then what about myspace? A friend of mine lost her myspace login info so she used the i-forgot-my-password-function. We expected a mail with a link to reset the password but she actuallly got her password mailed...

Am I the only one that thinks it's scared that myspace doesn't seem to encrypt passwords and that this tom guy is sitting on millions of e-mailaddresses and passwords. I mean; at least a couple 10.000 people are probably using the same login details for their ebay or paypal, right?

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