Use Twitter? Did you know the service will soon start tracking which apps you have installed on your device?
The move by the social media company to begin delving into your app library is designed to help it “deliver more tailored content” to your timeline. In other words, it wants to increase the relevancy of ads and additional content that it occasionally pushes your way.
According to Re/code, which noticed the update to Twitter’s Help pages revealing its tracking intentions, the data could also enable the microblogging service to bring engaging content to a so-called ‘instant timeline‘ that the company is thought to be considering for new users. The instant timeline would be populated with tweets from automatically followed Twitter users selected according to the new user’s interests, some of which may be defined by the types of apps they have on their device.
If the thought of Twitter knowing about your app library leaves you feeling a little exposed, you might like to know that developers have actually long been able to gather various bits of information about the apps you run.
Twitter said it’ll notify users when the feature is introduced, and stresses that it won’t be collecting any data from within the apps themselves. However, if you’re not happy about it even peeking into your library to see what you have, you’ll be able to block the intrusion by taking the following steps:
Using Twitter for Android:
1. Tap the overflow icon 
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap the account you’d like to adjust.
4. Under Other, you can adjust the setting to Tailor Twitter based on my apps.
Using Twitter for iOS:
1. From the Me tab, tap the gear icon 
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap the account you’d like to adjust.
4. Under Privacy, you can adjust the setting to Tailor Twitter based on my apps.
Twitter adds on its Help page that anyone who’s already opted out of interest-based ads by turning on ‘Limit ad tracking’ on iOS or by altering Android’s device settings to ‘Opt out of interest-based ads,’ won’t have any app-related information collected from their mobile device unless they alter their settings to allow it.
Anyway, chances are you have a ton of apps on your phone you never even look at, let alone use, so the data may not be as useful to Twitter as it hopes, which could result in some unwanted dross landing on your timeline.
