Twitter App Tracking: How To Opt Out

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Twitter has started tracking the apps you install on your mobile devices, it announced last week -- a move that it says will help the company better target content and ads. Twitter has automatically opted in all users to this new setting, called App Graph.

Twitter pushed the update to iOS users last week and will do the same for Android users this week. You'll see a pop-up notification that alerts you that this setting has been turned on; until then, Twitter has not collected information on your apps.

The data that Twitter will collect is limited to the names of the apps you've installed, it said on its Support page. Other information, such as what you share or how often you use the apps, won't be collected. Twitter says that this data will help the company improve a few features, including the "who to follow" suggestions that it bases on your interests.

[Catch up on Twitter's newest features. Read 4 Twitter Changes, Explained.]

It will also use this information to add tweets, accounts, and other content to your timeline that it thinks you'll find interesting, and to show you more relevant promoted content, it said. These tie in with the updates it announced last month, which included highlighting posts from people you don't follow and an algorithm-based timeline that surfaces posts you may have missed.

Twitter isn't alone in tracking the apps on your mobile devices. Facebook collects some information on apps users download, too, but only for ones that use the company's software developer kit.

How to turn off App Graph
If you had previously opted out of interest-based ads by turning on "Limit Ad Tracking" on your iOS device or by changing your Android device settings to "Opt out of interest-based ads," Twitter will not collect your apps unless you change that setting, it said.

Twitter will opt in all other users, though, but you can opt out at any time.

If you're an Android user, tap the icon with the three dots, then tap Settings. Select the account you'd like to adjust. Under Other, turn off "Tailor Twitter based on my apps."

For iOS users, tap the Me tab, then tap the gear icon. Find settings, then tap the account you'd like to adjust. Under Privacy, turn off "Tailor Twitter based on my apps."

If you opt out of Twitter's App Graph feature, it will delete the data it has already collected, the company said.

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