Twitter: Fun Service, But an Open Book
Everybody's using Twitter these days-politicians, celebrities, and many of your friends and neighbors. It might be fun to follow the daily routines of Ashton Kutcher or your favorite hairdresser, but you should consider your own safety and privacy before you start twittering about yourself.
First, Twitter accounts have little in the way of security settings that let you control who can see your posts. You can block specific users, but that will only prevent them from being listed as "followers" of your account. They can still see everything you post.
Because of this, if you don't want particular people to know what you're up to, don't write about it at all. If you told your Aunt Marge you couldn't make it to her birthday party because you were going to be out of the country, don't Tweet about how much you're loving the pasta at your local Italian restaurant while she's blowing out the candles on her cake. People have a way of finding out these things, especially if you're writing about them on a publicly viewable site.
Several recent hacking incidents have also illustrated how easy it is for people to access the information you have associated with your Twitter account—includes an email address as well as your cell phone number if you decide to divulge it. Additionally, e-mail harvesters have begun looking at Twitter posts hoping to catch somebody inadvertently divulging a working email address. Add this to a few very public breaches of high-profile celebrity Twitter accounts, in which hackers impersonated everyone from Britney Spears to President Obama, and you understand why some people are wary of Twitter.
Bottom line: it's a fun service that can be great for posting quick thoughts, recommendations, and updates on everything from what book you're reading to how you're spending your weekend. Just make sure you're not writing about anything too personal. If you can, register from a nonessential email account-one you can also use to sign up for newsletters, free offers, and other promotions, and one that you don't mind getting flooded with spam. And remember: it's not the frequency of the tweeting that matters, but the quality of the tweet.
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