Popular microblogging website Twitter has said that it would be collecting application data from users’ smartphones. It would be monitoring the applications that a person download in order to provide them with a more tailored experience in terms of the content that is shown on their timeline as well as as more appropriate ads.
The company announced the news on their website where they wrote, “To help build a more personal Twitter experience for you, we are collecting and occasionally updating the list of apps installed on your mobile device so we can deliver tailored content that you might be interested in.”
While Twitter has said that it will be keeping a tab on the third-party applications that a person downloads on their phones, it will not be collecting data from within the app. For instance, it will not be collecting your username and password when you use the Facebook application.
This is a major step for the microblogging website towards becoming more commercial. Twitter recently started promoted tweets that were ads from companies. This new feature called ‘app graph’ will let Twitter help advertisers more specifically target their ads towards users that fit best in their target audience.
The company is definitely working towards growth within the industry and this new feature is a part of that effort. Twitter is also looking to engage more users through different avenues and driving growth by bringing more people to the platform.