Twitter is now tracking the apps you download

Twitter has announced that it has started collecting data on the apps its users download and install on their smartphones.

The benefit for advertisers to better target users is obvious: Twitter users with Jawbone UP24 installed could find more fitness-related ads, while music subscriptions services could target users of their rivals with special offers or incentives to switch.

Twitter isn't the only service to be tracking it users' apps. Facebook checks which apps users have installed that use the Facebook SDK -- again to better target advertising of Facebook games and applications. WhatsApp will also retrieve a list of applications you have running.

If this all sounds a little too much, Twitter does point out that this is entirely optional -- you can turn off this feature, and the company details exactly how to do so for both Android and iOS on its website.

Source: CNET