Twitter will share more information with advertisers


Twitter has removed a privacy feature that its users can prevent some private information from being shared with advertisers. The removed feature prevented Twitter from sharing advertisements that were seen or interacted with, and information such as the tracking identifier for the phone. For many users, most of this information will now be shared by default and it will not be possible to stop this sharing.

According to a Twitter statement, shared data was used to measure the effectiveness of ads in the micro-blog service. With this data, the company can show people seeing, watching, and interacting with ads. Twitter said that this data could lead to advertising and enable independant operations.

Twitter's privacy settings include an option to "Share your data with Twitter’s partners." Disabling this option will stop sharing the above mentioned data. Although the option is still available, the micro-blog service says its users have removed control over "mobile app ad metrics". This means that users will be able to prevent the sharing of their interests or web tracking. However, their interactions with ads will no longer be confidential.

Twitter has a major exception to this rule change. Such mobile advertising data will remain confidential for Twitter users in the European Union, the European Free Trade Association and the UK. These users can allow Twitter to share data at any time.



Twitter has been reporting in its apps, keeping its users informed of the change. "The change is part of our ongoing work on transparency and control. We want to make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of the settings we offer.”