Group message broadcasting for Twitter

Problem: Malcolm, Zoe, Kaylee, Simon, and River all work together on the same web development team. They are avid Twitter users and want a similar way to broadcast quick messages and updates to everyone on their team. Since these messages may contain confidential information, the team doesn't want them published to their public Twitter timelines or to any followers who are not part of the team.

Solution: GroupTweet allows Malcolm and the gang to send messages via Twitter that are instantly broadcasted privately to only the team members.

Help! My group account stopped working!

As a lot of you visting may have already seen, a bit of a scandal has broken regarding GroupTweet. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch posted Privacy Disaster At Twitter: Direct Messages Exposed (Update: GroupTweet Is Likely Culprit). Ok, an unordered list should make this easier to explain:

  • This is NOT a privacy bug with Twitter. I apologize for any negative voodoo I've pulled down on them. Their service works great and there are no privacy issues (that I know of). Please direct your hatred at me!
  • There are no known bugs or privacy issues with GroupTweet as long as you create a separate Twitter account for your group.
  • The reason that a particular GroupTweet users' direct messages were exposed is because she registered her PERSONAL Twitter account at GroupTweet. The site was doing exactly what it was supposed to: taking direct messages sent to the GROUP account and re-publishing them as tweets. When the personal account was registered here, direct messages sent to the account were republished. Unfortunately, these were not meant to be republished.
  • I am 100% at fault for this fiasco because I did a poor job of explaining the steps one needs to take to use GroupTweet. I sincerely apologize
  • I WILL BE DISABLING ALL GROUPTWEET ACCOUNTS. The only way I can ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else is to disable all accounts. If you are sure that you are using GroupTweet correctly and would like your group re-activated, simply email me or re-register (once I turn the form back on)

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