Security concerns have been raised over a new Twitter feature that allows you to tip other users.
The Tip Jar feature was rolled out to a limited group of users - such as journalists and creators - earlier this week.
It allows people to send over a cash tip, through the likes of Bandcamp and PayPal, as a show of appreciation for their work.
But security researcher Rachel Tobac has pointed out a potential flaw in the service, that could reveal the tipper’s home address through PayPal.
Writing on the social media platform, she said: “Huge heads up on PayPal Twitter Tip Jar. If you send a person a tip using PayPal, when the receiver opens up the receipt from the tip you send, they get your address.
“Just tested to confirm by tipping @yashar on Twitter w/Paypal and he did in fact get my address I tipped him.”
Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour said that the problem is on ‘PayPal’s side’ in response to the tweet.
He wrote: “This is a good catch, thank you. We can’t control the revealing of the address on PayPal’s side but we will add a warning for people giving tips via PayPal so that they are aware of this.”
The Tip Jar feature was revealed by Twitter yesterday as a growing number of users post their PayPal details after a viral tweet.
Scots can tip their favourite tweeters by clicking an icon next to the follow button on the chosen person’s profile page.
It is currently only available to a limited number of people that are using Twitter in English. People can only give tips over the firm’s iOS and Android apps.
It is hoped that the feature will be expanded to more profiles and expand to more languages in the future.
PayPal says that users should select 'friends and family' when sending their Tip Jar payment to ensure that their address is not shared.
The firm said that it will work with Twitter “closely” to make sure that people are aware of this when sending their tips.
Twitter has been approached for comment.
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