Privatize lets you tweet links that only people you mention can open

Have you ever wanted to tweet private links to multiple people on Twitter? If so, you should give the new Privatize Web tool a try.

To get started, simply use the service to paste in a link and compose a tweet that @mentions the people you want to have access to it. If someone else clicks on the link, they’ll be redirected to the Privatize homepage.

I couldn’t find any documentation on what kind of security Privatize uses, so you should probably hold off on tweeting any super sensitive links for now, but this is a neat trick to add semi-private functionality on top of Twitter for those who need it.

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Privatize was created by ShopSavvy designer Bryn Jackson, Iodine designer Michael Schultz, and Biddenly co-founder Ajay Nainani.

Update: I asked the team about security, how it works, and why someone would use Privatize. Here’s their statement:

We are using the Twitter API and following their own security best practices to ensure that their API is the least secure part of the app. If you would normally trust a DM to send something, you can trust our app just as much. We were just getting started on it when the whole “Reset the Net” movement was happening and that gave us another reason to get excited. It’s nice to be able to share something privately without having to go to a bunch of extra steps to get someone’s information.

We’re parsing the tweet for mentions at the time it is sent and any user entities are given access, as well as the person who sent the tweet. We then check the user when they log in (or if their session is still active, they skip the login process).

We’re working on a page to explain some of the use cases we envision, and that will be up shortly, but the things that get us excited are being able to tease new products by showing publicly that we’re getting feedback on mockups, or passing beta invites out, or even sending a new piece of music around for critique. We’ve thought about sharing tickets to an event, sharing a résumé, sending a private video, sexting (as you mentioned), sharing your location with friends via map links, sending links to support chats or tickets, and of course just replacing the missing linking function in DMs.

We’re working on an API next and we’re also in progress on things like auto-completing usernames, viewing all your privatize tweets in a separate feed, giving access to groups, and a lot more.

➤ Privatize [h/t @Zee]