Twitter will track which apps you use on your phone
It's no secret that Twitter has been looking for ways to put more targeted ads in your social feed, but its latest approach may make you uncomfortable if you jealously protect your privacy. The service has revealed that its app will start tracking which apps you have installed on your device in order to improve the relevance of both ads and other content that slips into your tweet stream, such as favorites. Twitter is adamant that it's not collecting data from within apps, and will let you know when the monitoring kicks in. However, those safeguards are offset by the feature's opt-out nature -- the service will automatically scoop up that info unless you explicitly tell it otherwise.
Both Android and iOS allow developers to collect at least some information about the apps that are running, so Twitter isn't technically venturing out of bounds. Also, third-party clients like Tweetbot or Talon won't face this problem (at least, for now). However, the move raises concerns that Twitter will know more about your behavior than you'd willingly offer.
