Twitter announced that it’s rolling out a couple new features to help users protect their accounts and restore access. They’re launching a new password reset experience and improved identification and blocking of suspicious logins.
The company says it knows people have trouble accessing their accounts, and they want to get them back to it quickly and more securely.
“The new process [for password reset] lets you choose the email address or phone number associated with your account where you’d like us to send your reset information,” says Twitter’s Mollie Vandor. “That way, whether you’ve recently changed your phone number, or are traveling with limited access to your devices, or had an old email address connected to your Twitter account, you’ve got options. We’ve also made it easier to reset a lost password on your iOS or Android device and have added some customized tips to help you strengthen your account security in the future.”
Twitter, of course, recommends not using the same password on multiple sites, but recognizes that people do so anyway.
“To protect your account in this scenario we built a system that analyzes login attempts on your account — by looking at things like location, device being used and login history — and identifies suspicious behavior,” says Vandor. “If we identify a login attempt as suspicious, we’ll ask you a simple question about your account — something that only you know — to verify that your account is secure before granting access. We’ll also send you an email to let you know that we’ve detected unusual activity so you can update your password if need be.”
In other efforts to keep people safe from malicious activity online, Twitter has also teamed up with Facebook, Google, and AOL on a new initiative to educate consumers about harmful ads. More on that here.
Image via Twitter