“Bug” In Vine Archive Website Could Have Exposed Email Addresses, Phone Numbers

Vine said late Friday afternoon that a “bug” had affected an archive that was erected after Twitter shuttered the six-second video app in January. Consequently, the company wrote in a Medium post, email addresses and phone numbers associated with Vine accounts could have potentially been exposed to third parties.

Vine said it repaired the bug within 24 hours after it was discovered, and that it has notified any account holders that could have been affected. “While we have no information indicating that any user information impacted by this incident has been misused,” the company wrote, “it’s always a good idea to be cautious of emails or text messages received from unknown senders.”

“We take these incidents very seriously, and we’re sorry this occurred,” Vine wrote in a separate email message to potential victims shared by Techcrunch. The bug did not impact Twitter users without Vine accounts, however — though the company is not saying how many users were ultimately affected.

Twitter announced last October that it was killing Vine as creators began to flee the service in favor of competing platform with more enticing creative and monetization prospects. In December, Twitter said that Vine would live on as a camera app that enables users to download videos or post them directly to Twitter. At the same time, Twitter set up the homepage of Vine as an interactive and searchable time capsule of sorts, which is where the bug was uncovered.