Crypto privacy has always been a sensitive topic, and the latest update on X (formerly Twitter) has brought it right back into the timeline. The platform rolled out a new feature that shows users’ country location. Many people are not happy about this.
Crypto privacy advocates are especially concerned because the feature was automatically enabled, with no warning and no clear way to opt out at first.
Why Vitalik Buterin Says the Feature Is “Risky”
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin didn’t hold back. He said the feature is “risky,” even though he first thought it might help create transparency by showing how different communities feel about global issues.
Prediction about this “show which country the account is from” thing:
In the short term it will have lots of positive effects.
In the medium term, the sophisticated actors will find ways to pretend to be from countries that they are not. Lots of ways to rent individual people’s…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 23, 2025
After thinking it over, he changed his stance. He agreed with users who said revealing a person’s identity without their consent is wrong. In the crypto industry, safety depends on anonymity.
Vitalik explained that even if a country is large, a bit of leaked data can still put some people at risk. Forcing this change on users without warning felt like a “retroactive rug pull” on their privacy.
I thought about this more and I think responders are right that revealing the country non-consensually without offering any opt-out option (not even “stop using your account”) is wrong.
In most cases, revealing country still leaves a very large anonymity set, but there are some…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 23, 2025
Crypto Leaders Push Back
Vitalik wasn’t the only one speaking out. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams called it “mandatory doxing” and said he hates the idea of forcing people to share their location. Andrei David, CTO at Summer.fi, pointed out that the real issue isn’t the country itself; it’s that they made it visible by default. He believes a privacy-sensitive feature should always start with the least revealing setting.
Pretty much this. The problem isn’t showing country, it’s forcing everyone into visibility without notice. A privacy-sensitive feature should always start with the least revealing setting.
— Andrei David (@AndreiDavid) November 23, 2025
How to Turn the Feature Off
X’s product director, Nikita Bier, said there is a way to limit visibility by showing only your region instead of your country. Shortly after, Web3 community lead Langerius explained how to fully turn it off:
- •Go to Settings & Privacy.
- •Click on Privacy & Safety.
- •Then click on Disable Country Visibility.
- •Or switch it to a region/continent.
X (twitter) can geo-doxx you now, showing which country you’re based in 🚨
If you want to hide it:
1- turn it off: settings & privacy → privacy & safety → disable country visibility
2- or switch from country to region/continent in same menu pic.twitter.com/YshMAOlSMY— LANGERIUS (@Langerius) November 22, 2025
Different Opinions
Some users perceive the panic as overblown. They say that showing “United States” doesn’t really identify anyone in a country with 350 million people. Investor Nic Carter believes the feature could prevent foreigners from pretending to be from certain countries during political debates.
The Twitter location dox is the first acknowledgment of something thought unthinkable in the west, that China figured out long ago – that we do not owe the whole world membership in our town square.
— nic carter (@nic__carter) November 23, 2025
Conclusion
This discussion reflects the importance of crypto privacy. Even crumbs of location information may be important, particularly for individuals who find sanctuary in anonymity. Whether X’s changes help integrity or harm privacy, users want control over what they reveal. They don’t want platforms making that decision for them.