Twitter will track which apps mobile users have installed

Twitter wants to serve its users more targeted advertisements and relevant content and will therefore keep track of which apps are installed on mobile phones that contain the Twitter app. It is possible for users to disable the collection of this data.

The collection of application data is referred to by Twitter as the App Graph. Information about this popped up on the Twitter support pages. According to the company behind the social networking site, a list of installed applications is collected on mobile devices such as smartphones. In addition, Twitter would like to emphasize that it does not collect data about how these applications are used.

By finding out which applications are installed, Twitter wants to ensure that advertisements can be better tailored to the user. In addition, the company believes it can provide relevant content suggestions to its users based on this information. Earlier, the social networking site already started showing tweets and accounts that may be of interest.

Developers on iOS and Android have long been able to collect information about which applications are installed on a mobile user’s device. According to a spokesperson for Google, developers must report that they collect such data, Re/code reports. Twitter confirms that it will notify its users when app graph is turned on. Users who do not want data about installed applications to be collected can disable this in the settings.