# Twitter keeps stalking my kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833 "2009-09-12T17:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/1 "2009-09-12T17:36:59Z")
My lovely and talented 12 year old daughter Attacklass has her own email account. She recently got an email from Twitter welcoming her to the service, followed by an email of someone following her tweets (I guess). I found it almost impossible to find an email for twitter. When I did, I got back a form email saying ‘your issue is important to us’ or somesuch. Today she got another email about their terms of service. : \*Hi, We’d like to let you know about our new Terms of Service. As Twitter has evolved, we’ve gained a better understanding of how folks use the service. As a result, we’ve updated the Terms and we’re notifying account holders. We’ve posted a brief overview on our company blog and you can read the Terms of Service online. If you haven’t been by in a while, we invite you to visit Twitter to see what else is new. Overview: [http://blog.twitter.com](http://blog.twitter.com) Terms: [X Terms of Service](http://www.twitter.com/tos) Twitter: [http://www.twitter.com](http://www.twitter.com) These updates complement the spirit of Twitter. If the nature of our service changes, we’ll revisit the Terms as necessary. Comments are welcome, please find the “feedback” link on the Terms of Service page. Thanks, Biz Stone, Co-founder Twitter, Inc.\* HOW do I make these people gooooooo awaaaaaaaay? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/2 "2009-09-12T17:39:53Z")
Can she cancel her twitter account? ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/3 "2009-09-12T18:10:05Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > HOW do I make these people gooooooo awaaaaaaaay? The generic answer to that question is: use a spam filter. Even if it’s not technically spam it’ll work just as well. Many email programs also allow you to auto-delete mail from certain senders. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/4 "2009-09-12T18:27:42Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Can she cancel her twitter account? So far I haven’t figured out how to do that. Plus, they shouldn’t be generating an account for her anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/5 "2009-09-12T18:28:50Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > The generic answer to that question is: use a spam filter. Even if it’s not technically spam it’ll work just as well. Many email programs also allow you to auto-delete mail from certain senders. Certainly a possibility, but I’d rather make it go away than just hide from it. For all I know, she may get a twitter account in 5 years, and then not be able to get info from them. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/6 "2009-09-12T18:35:05Z")
Wait, so she’s receiving the emails and didn’t sign up for the service herself? In that case, it looks like someone signed up and used her email address. There should be a way to cancel the account by logging in. Of course you don’t know the password used for the account in the first place, but usually the “forgot my password” link where you login results in an email being sent to the address used for registration so you’d be able to get into the account and cancel it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/7 "2009-09-12T18:42:00Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > Wait, so she’s receiving the emails and didn’t sign up for the service herself? In that case, it looks like someone signed up and used her email address. There should be a way to cancel the account by logging in. Of course you don’t know the password used for the account in the first place, but usually the “forgot my password” link where you login results in an email being sent to the address used for registration so you’d be able to get into the account and cancel it that way. Oh I didn’t catch that in the OP, but yeah, if she didn’t make a twitter account it does look like someone else is using her email address to sign up. I second the proposal above to make it stop. ---
**Author:** ![sharding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@sharding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharding)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/8 "2009-09-12T19:38:05Z")
Looking in my settings, I don’t see an obvious way to actually cancel the account, but changing the password and the email address associated with it would have basically the same effect (the person who signed up for it wouldn’t be able to access it anymore, and you’d stop getting emails about it). Not sure if they actually validate the email address when you try to change it (obviously they don’t validate it when you sign up initially). ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twitter-keeps-stalking-my-kid/509833/9 "2009-09-12T20:02:31Z")
Sign into twitter, navigate to [http://twitter.com/account/settings](http://twitter.com/account/settings) and click the “Delete my account” link at the bottom of the page. ETA: You can also just navigate directly to [http://twitter.com/account/delete](http://twitter.com/account/delete) but be sure to also click the “Okay, fine, delete my account” button to make it permanent