Twitter has revealed that Android users of the app may have had their private messages exposed due to a security vulnerability. 

The company has said that due to "an underlying Android OS security issue affecting OS versions 8 and 9" some users may potentially have had their private data exposed. 

The Android security vulnerability appeared in 2018 and has already been fixed for the majority of Android users. Twitter says 96 per cent of people should already have the security patch but for the rest of users the issue could still be a problem. 

Private Twitter data is potentially exposed if the user also had a malicious app installed on their phone that then used the security flaw to access Twitter data.

Although Twitter says it has no evidence that the vulnerability was actually used, it's still keen to notify users of the problem. The company is also updating its app to ensure other apps cannot access its in-app data. It is also notifying users who might still be affected to download the latest version. 

It's not been a good time for Twitter lately, with the Bitcoin hack happening in July where 130 high profile accounts were targetted as part of a scam that netted $110,000 for the perpetrators.