Twitter Is Watching You: How to Opt Out of New Tracking Feature

iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Twitter will soon start taking a peek at the other apps on your smartphone as a way to create a more personalized experience unless users take steps to opt out of the feature.

The social networking company, which depends largely on targeted advertising, said the new tracking feature would allow them show more relevant promoted tweets, along with improved “who to follow” suggestions and other content that may be of interest.

“We will notify you about this feature being turned on for your account by showing a prompt letting you know that to help tailor your experience, Twitter uses the apps on your device. Until you see this prompt, this setting is turned off and we are not collecting a list of your apps,” a post in the Twitter Help Center read.

Twitter said it will only be looking surface level at other apps on a person’s phone and will not be collecting any data from within the applications. Users who have previously limited ad tracking should have this feature automatically turned off.

For iOS and Android users who don’t want Twitter to have a peek at their smartphones, there’s a quick way to turn off the feature.

Go to settings, choose the account you’d like to make changes to. Android users will then click “other” while iOS users will choose “privacy.” From there, you’ll be able to adjust the setting to tailor Twitter based on apps.

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