How a Twitter Engineer Cut Mobile Bandwidth by 40% and Faced a Privacy Dilemma

During the turbulent period of 2015‑2016 when Twitter was close to collapse, engineer Steve Krenzel worked on mobile‑app optimizations such as reducing bandwidth, memory usage, battery drain, and app size for emerging markets like Brazil, India, and Nigeria.

One of his key tasks was improving how the mobile app uploaded logs. By adding gzip support for HTTP requests and adjusting the log‑collection servers, he cut mobile bandwidth consumption by roughly 40% , earning him the nickname “mobile‑log expert”.

Later, a large telecom company approached Twitter asking for user signal‑strength data. Krenzel’s team aggregated data by location and worked with the Data Science department to ensure anonymity, but the client later demanded more detailed information about how many Twitter users visited competitors’ stores.

Realising the request aimed to obtain identifiable user location data, Krenzel’s team proposed a revised solution, yet the client remained unsatisfied. He was sent to the telecom’s headquarters, where the true intent became clear.

Although the legal department claimed the request did not violate the user agreement, Krenzel refused on privacy grounds, rallying his team to protect user data. The internal disagreement caused many team members to resign, and Krenzel himself left Twitter.

In his final email to Jack Dorsey, he described the telecom’s request; Dorsey replied that he would investigate to ensure no misunderstanding, and later confirmed the project was abandoned because he disliked it.

Krenzel warned remaining Twitter employees to exercise their veto power against unethical data requests, emphasizing that moral courage is essential even when it may seem ineffective.