Twitter Says it’s Tracking Your Mobile Apps But Won’t Invade Privacy

Twitter, the micro-blogging social media platform, has announced that it has started collecting data on the apps its users download and install on their smartphones.

It is no secret that Twitter is looking into stuff to increase targeted ads in your social feed, however, their latest approach is an issue with users concerned about their privacy. The service has revealed that its app will start tracking the list of applications you have installed on your device in order to improve the relevance of both ads and other content that slips into your tweet stream, such as Favorites. The feature is named as ‘App Graph’. Twitter is adamant that it’s not collecting data from within the apps, and will let you know when the monitoring kicks in.

Twitter has been working to personalise users’ timelines with better content as it struggles to convert its numerous passive users, meaning those who don’t sign in or those who have accounts but rarely tweet into active, more engaged users. Twitter has been testing ways to make its service more usable from the initial sign-in, even if you don’t have a network of friends to follow or aren’t sure how to get started. For instance, Twitter’s recently added ‘Instant Timeline’ feature for new users will give people something to see as soon as they sign in for the first time.

Twitter has ensured that the data will be strictly business-oriented and won’t be invading your privacy in any way. However, the mere official statement is not enough for some users and they are opting third-party clients like Tweetbot or Talon who are not facing this problem, at least for now.