I cancelled my Twitter account.

Twitter logo bird power-bombing cartoon figure

I used to have a personal Twitter account, but I mismanaged it until it no longer provided value for me. I used to just use it as a new feed (to look for new products and service changes from some items I used). I tried to be slightly more active, but it became more of a liability than a useful tool after that. Specifically:

  • Unless locked down to the point people can’t use it to contact you, Twitter seems to expose everything including every single action you take on it, like following other accounts or liking posts
    • That makes any OSINT against you very easy.
    • Sure, there’s probably a more convoluted way that gives the appearance of making OSINT harder, but after competitor Meta/Facebook’s Campbridge Analytica incident, and similar proven information disclosures, I now assume any service that bases its business off sharing personal information will not prioritise locking down your information against attacks.
  • I placed some unrelated items to make OSINT against my Twitter noisier, but then it made it useless to me since I had a whole lot of irrelevant content.
  • Similar to other social media, I just felt it was getting unhealthy to use. As some de-cluttering guides said, I wasn’t finding joy from it, so it was time to let it go.

Unless I post otherwise, @patrickceg or similar on Twitter is not me.

As a side note in this experience, if I felt uneasy just having a potentially risky social media setup, I can’t imagine what people who are being bullied or attacked over social media feel. I’ll definitely continue to donate time and money when I can to efforts that lead to a safer online experience.

(Note that the commit of this web page to Github is GPG signed, and if I reinstate my Twitter, I will make sure to sign the post as well.)