Lingering Tweets: Why deleting your Twitter posts don't guarantee complete removal

So incase anyone needed anymore fuel to the never-ending advice from professors and employers about always being careful about what you post online, this little run down is for you. Specifically what I am talking about is Tweets. Recently it has been found that some Tweets that may have been deleted by a person can still appear on search engines. And really this entire post may serve more as a PSA than anything because I do not personally have a Twitter account anymore. But I do know that I have purged most of my social media as I approach real occupation life and if I did have Twitter this would concern me.

Essentially search engines that continuously index pages on the web can pick up your Twitter page and your tweets as you post them. If you delete them, they are still potentially out there on those search engines until the search engine indexes itself again and updates your posts. The time varies in between this indexing update process, so if you do run across a Tweet you have deleted but is lingering it is best to reach out to the search engine directly to have it removed. They will help you out and get it down as soon as possible.

Putting this into perspective, I do not know how many people have the time to jump through these hoops because I know I don't. I think information like this just serves to show how minimal our control can be over our own information when we choose to publicly post on social channels.

But no, it is not the end of the world if you do spot a deleted Tweet hanging around on search engines, but the chances of people catching it are slim unless they actively check search engine results for their profiles. Another way to avoid this all together is to make your profile private. Although being public allows for employers to see more about you as a person, it may just not be worth it all together.