Some Twitch Users’ Private Messages Were Exposed To Other Users. Here’s How To Check If You’re One Of Them.

Some Twitch users’ private messages were exposed due to a bug in code after the platform made archives of past missives available for download, the streaming platform said in an email to users last week.

Per a copy of the email, shared by Twitter user @kaitly_n, the issue occurred after Twitch retired its Messages feature in May 2018 — but has since been repaired. “Some users who downloaded their message bundle may have one or more of your messages in their archive” because the bug caused some users’ messages to be included in the wrong archives, the company wrote.

A Twitch spokesperson told Polygon that the majority of messages that were bugged into other users’ archives were ones that streamers had mass-sent to other users as a means of promotion. “Protecting our users’ privacy is important to us, and we have taken actions to ensure this kind of error does not happen in the future,” the company added.

To check if your messages were exposed, you can go to twitch.tv/messages/archive. Any user whose messages were compromised will have access to a specially created archive containing all incorrectly delivered messages — so you’ll know if other users saw any of your messages, and exactly which messages they saw.

Twitch added in its email to users that the bug did not affect any messages sent through the messaging/social media app Whisper, which is integrated into Twitch’s website.