(minipost) Instagram: comments from your private account are public

Having a private Instagram account means that if someone visits your profile they won’t see any of your photos.

However if you comment on anyone’s photos / reels etc your avatar, like and comment are public. I think your likes are public too but I’ve not tested it.

I’m not sure how aware people are of this fact though I suspect they may work it out on a case by case basis. If I hover over the account in green below it tells me that their account is private but I can see their avatar, comment and how many posts they’ve made and how many followers / following.

An Instagram comment from a private account is visible publicly.

• Twitter now lets you see the tweets of people who’ve blocked you

Updated March 2016 – official Twitter platforms now make it harder to see tweets in search results but this doesn’t affect third party apps.

Actually ‘now’ is a little bit cheeky of me. It’s always been like that and I’m pretty confident it will always be that way – because Twitter is “default public” by which I mean that you don’t need to be logged in to Twitter to view anyone’s account. If someone’s blocked you then you can view their tweets by logging out because once you’ve logged out Twitter doesn’t know that you’re the person they’ve blocked and, if their account is public, it will let you see their tweets.

In fact Twitter is so public that there’s probably no need for you to log out. Most of the apps that people use on their phones and tablets (such as Echofon or Janetter) will show their profile to you and desktop apps like Tweetdeck will do the same. You can also search Google to see any public tweets.

Official Twitter platforms such as desktop Twitter (twitter.com on a web browser) will probably tell you that you can’t view their tweets or follow them because they’ve blocked you but if you search for their name (from:theirname to see tweets they’ve sent or to:theirname / @theirname to see tweets sent to them, theirname (by itself) will bring up either) you’ll see all of their tweets. The only thing you can’t do is to favourite or RT them (you can copy and paste the text of their tweet and manually retweet it though).

There is no technological solution to this other than for Twitter to make its interface more closed. I strongly suspect that Twitter doesn’t wish to do this.

The only way someone can stop someone else from viewing their tweets is to stop everyone (other than approved followers) from viewing their tweets by making their account private.

Some ways you can view people’s tweets even after they’ve blocked you

1. Search for their name (the desktop version of Twitter is a better way to search) on Twitter or Google
2. Use a third party app that shows profiles even if they’ve blocked you
3. Log out from Twitter

Note: this is one of two otherwise identical posts. This one is written from the perspective of someone who’s been blocked by someone else, the other post is from the perspective of someone who’s done the blocking.

• Twitter now lets people you’ve blocked see your tweets

Updated March 2016 – official Twitter platforms now make it harder to see tweets in search results but this doesn’t affect third party apps.

Actually ‘now’ is a little bit cheeky of me. It’s always been like that and I’m pretty confident it will always be that way – because Twitter is “default public” by which I mean that you don’t need to be logged in to Twitter to view anyone’s account. If you’ve blocked someone they can view your tweets by logging out because once they’ve logged out Twitter doesn’t know that they’re the person you’ve blocked and, if your account is public, it will let them see your tweets.

In fact Twitter is so public that there’s probably no need for them to log out. Most of the apps that people use on their phones and tablets (such as Echofon or Janetter) will show your profile to people you’ve blocked and desktop apps like Tweetdeck will do the same. People can also search Google to see any public tweets.

Official Twitter platforms such as desktop Twitter (twitter.com on a web browser) will probably tell them that they can’t view your tweets or follow you because you’ve blocked them but if they search for your name (from:yourname to see tweets you’ve sent or to:yourname / @yourname to see tweets sent to you, yourname (by itself) will bring up either) they’ll see all your tweets. The only thing they can’t do is to favourite or RT them (they can copy and paste the text of your tweet and manually retweet it though).

There is no technological solution to this other than for Twitter to make its interface more closed. I strongly suspect that Twitter doesn’t wish to do this.

If you want to stop one particular person from reading your tweets then unfortunately you have to stop everyone (other than approved followers) from reading them and make your account private.

Some ways people can view your tweets even after you’ve blocked them

1. Search for your name (the desktop version of Twitter is a better way to search) on Twitter or Google
2. Use a third party app that shows profiles even if you’ve blocked them
3. Log out from Twitter

Note: this is one of two otherwise identical posts. This one is written from the perspective of someone who’s blocked someone else, the other post is from the perspective of someone who’s been blocked.

Can you stop someone from seeing your tweets?

No. Well, only if your account is private (ie you’ve protected your tweets so that only confirmed followers can view them). Remember that public tweets sent in reply to your private ones are visible and may give information away about what you’re doing or what you’ve said.

Blocking someone cannot stop them from viewing your tweets if your account is public, there are many workarounds for them to view your tweets.

If you’re using official Twitter apps such as Twitter for desktop or Twitter for iPhone etc then it will look like you can’t see the tweets of someone who’s blocked you (from which you might reasonably infer that a blockee can’t see your tweets either) – but you can and they can.

Workarounds including using a different app (the versions of Echofon, Janetter and Osfoora that I have on my iPhone let me see the profiles of quacks who’ve blocked me), searching for the username (eg they’d type from:yourname into the search box to see your tweets), using another account, logging out or searching for your Twitter handle on Google.

Further reading

• About public and protected tweets from Twitter Support
• Blocking users on Twitter from Twitter Support – note that the bit about “Blocked users cannot… View your Tweets, following or followers lists, photos, videos, lists or favorites when logged in” is inaccurate because of the many workarounds which means that they can see tweets whether or not they’re logged in (most non-official-Twitter apps that I’ve checked all let you view the profiles of people that have blocked you).
• What happens if you block someone on Twitter? What happens if they block you? by @JoBrodie (me)
• Blocking someone on Twitter – what can they see? by @JoBrodie

Keywords:
What happens when you block someone? Can someone still see your tweets? see tweets blocked