Strangers can now see the locations of users on X after the social media platform rolled out a new calling feature. Anyone with a profile on X, previously known as Twitter, has a new setting on their account turned on by default, which enables others to call their profile. By doing so the caller can see their town, city or postcode.
The feature has caused concern among liberty groups and digital rights campaigners who say showing this information could be a “matter of life or death” for vulnerable campaigners. The Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch labelled the move by X as “extremely concerning” and “a serious error of judgement” regarding users’ safety and privacy.
The Information Commissioner’s Office told i platforms were required to ensure personal information was protected and for users to be made aware of changes to their private data.
X’s change reveals a user’s IP address when they are called. This is a unique set of numbers assigned to a device, like a phone or laptop, that is connected to the internet. Those numbers enable the device to communicate with the internet and include information, such as its physical location.
An IP address can reveal the town, city or postcode of a user. It can be used to find the exact address of individuals – a practice known as ‘doxxing’.
It is unclear when the new feature was rolled out across accounts. After searching on an archive of X’s website, i found a ‘Help Centre’ page detailing the update on 23 February. Five days later on 28 February, X announced the ability to make calls on the app but did not disclose that a person’s IP address would be visible.
Some users sought to let others know about the privacy issue through X’s ‘community notes’ feature, where accounts can highlight key information the original user has omitted in a post.
The function can be disabled, but some people have reported receiving an error message or having to try multiple times before the feature would turn off. It also appears it can only be disabled while using X’s app, not on the website.
