Periscope’s first privacy foul-up

Periscope, the live-streaming video app from Twitter, has had its first privacy goof – just days after launch.

One of the features boasted by the app is its ability to broadcast a live stream of what’s going on around you to either the world (“public”) or a smaller audience of your choosing (“private”).

However, in a series of tweets the Periscope team has admitted that the current version of the app can leak the title of a live streaming video even if you have chosen to keep it private.

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As The Register reports, the Periscope tweeted a warning to users earlier today:

Bug report that we want to make our users aware of:
If Tweet option is ON, and then you switch to private broadcast mode, the app will accidentally tweet the title of your broadcast. Your video IS STILL PRIVATE. The link WILL NOT load video or audio. Only intended participants can view the broadcast in the app. In the meantime, A temporary solution is to disable the Twitter button before tapping the private lock icon. This will disable tweeting We’re very sorry and worked to fix this bug as soon as we discovered it. Should be live in the App Store soon (we will confirm when it is)

In short, if you forget to turn off the Twitter button before broadcasting a private video stream – the video content itself remains private, but the title will be shared on Twitter with all of your followers.

Which is probably okay if the video is called “test”, but not so good if it’s something like “See what I’m doing with this trombone, a terrapin and half a pound of lard.”

Check out more privacy concerns raised by Periscope.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.