Kellen
Twitter has been ducking for cover today after announcing that soon-to-be-released updates for its iOS and Android apps will include a new app tracking feature. According to Recode, and for the most part this Twitter support page, Twitter plans to take a look at the apps you have installed on your devices. No, they won’t be snooping into what you are doing inside of those apps, they will simply be collecting a list of the apps.
Why would they do this? Well, because they want to build a “more tailored experience” for you that includes improvements to their “who to follow” suggestions and the ability to add more un-asked for Tweets in your timeline. Oh, they also want to show you more relevant ads. Yes, the bottom line here is that Twitter is still trying to make money and by knowing a list of apps you have installed, they may be able to do a better job of it.
This new app list tracking is opt-out, by the way, so if you have Twitter installed and don’t want them knowing which apps are installed on your phone, you need to tell them that. In a future update, the update that will include this tracking “feature,” you should see a pop-up or notification within the app that talks about all of this. You can opt-out at that time.
Also, here are the instructions that Twitter has provided to help you adjust data collection:
- Tap the overflow icon
- Tap Settings.
- Tap the account you’d like to adjust.
- Under Other, you can adjust the setting to Tailor Twitter based on my apps.
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