Want to receive direct messages (DMs) from any random Twitter users, whether you follow them or not? That option didn't previously exist for most Twitter accounts, but a Monday announcement confirmed that the service is overhauling its DM access in two interesting ways—and one of those, in its current implementation, has more privacy implications than are apparent at first glance.
The most obvious change, as explained on Twitter's help site, is a toggle that users can enable if they wish to receive DMs from anybody. By default, Twitter only opens up DM access between accounts if they follow each other. Essentially, the service checks for two users to virtually shake hands before they can talk behind closed doors. However, some verified and highly followed accounts have been given this "let anybody DM me" option for quite some time.
Additionally, we've confirmed that even if you don't enable that new toggle, Twitter has still opened the door to a DM conversation so long as one person follows the other. It's not totally cut-and-dried, though. Let's say @DrPizza (Ars' Peter Bright) chooses to officially follow @samred (yours truly) on Twitter. At that point, I can choose to send him a DM. Before I do so, Bright can't send me a DM at all—it's a one-way street to where only the followee can instigate a DM.
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