Twitter’s new and free iPhone app: Periscope, which was much awaited was finally released last week basically to beat the rival app Meerkat. Periscope allows users to stream live videos and audio from their phones to the Twitter feeds and in just few days the app has gained many addictive fans across the globe. When users tune in mid stream they can either paste a heart or submit their comments to indicate that they have liked it and this video will immediately pop up in real time over the Tweet feed. Further, if user forgets to turn off the Twitter button before user broadcasts a video stream then the title gets shared with all the followers, which might be even strangers. It seems that only title is getting shared and the exact content is not shared however this could be embarrassing in case the tweet for intended for some intimate user! Now, this seems to be a much better way of connecting to the world however Rose Pastore from Fast Company has discovered another glitch in the Periscope. Rose Pastore, was using the Periscope app to broadcast the video of her pet and she was shocked to see that the exact location of her apartment was mentioned in the tweet including the street names.Though it was understood that the Tweet feed would give her location she was not aware that it would give away minute details including the exact street labels to strangers which could prove to be potentially dangerous to the user as this information can be misused by criminals. As per Pastore, most viewers were not aware regarding the geo-tagging issue. Rose Pastore mentioned that the exact location is useful in certain cases, suppose if a journalist is viewing some news and wants the exact location the app does help however maximum Periscope Tweets were personal and hence giving away the exact details might be potentially hazardous. Further, Pastore also mentioned in her blog that as of now users can simply choose to disable the geo-tagging of their location by tapping the arrow icon above the “start broadcast” button before they start the stream. This will ensure that the title as well as the location will not be revealed to the strangers and the content will be forwarded only to the intended viewers. On the contrary if a person purposely wishes to broadcast their titles and their location then all they need to do is leave the Twitter button ON. Pastore has also included various improvements that Twitter can incorporate to fix the bug as she feels that location tagging has its own charm hence she has given the suggestion of including the “Only city” option, this would give the general location as well as will help to maintain user’s privacy as well. Twitter was also aware of the bug and this was reported through the Periscope’s serial Tweets: As already mentioned Periscope has been updated and the flaws has been taken care of as of now so users of iPhone iOS 7.1 or above can download the free app and enjoy the broadcasting of the videos and audio.
