Twitter launches video app Vine; privacy issues plague release

Twitter launched a new app on Thursday, called Vine. The app which lets user capture short six-second videos that run on loop is currently only available for iOS devices such as iPhone and iPod touch. You can download it from here.

Twitter announced in a blogpost that ,

Today, we’re introducing Vine: a mobile service that lets you capture and share short looping videos. Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity. Now that you can easily capture motion and sound, we look forward to seeing what you create.

Posts on Vine are about abbreviation - the shortened form of something larger. They’re little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life. They’re quirky, and we think that’s part of what makes them so special.

Check out an example of a Tweet with a Vine video added to it:

[caption id=“attachment_601721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab of Wine website[/caption]

But it seems that Twitter’s new service was not without privacy issues. According to one user Keith Whamond, who spoke to AllThingsD when he logged into the service he was able to see the private contact information of another user such as unlisted e-mail id and telephone number.

The privacy issue forced Vine to temporarily disable Twitter and Facebook sharing soon after the launch. The option was restored later.

According to Twitter, the problem was because of a bug that allowed cross-wiring of user accounts which let Vine users see the phone number and e-mail addresses of other users. Twitter denied that the bug gave users the option to post from other people’s social media accounts.

Vine was acquired by Twitter last year for an undisclosed account. The app clearly aims to compete with Google’s YouTube Capture app and other apps such as Tout (which lets users shoot 15-second videos).