Twitter to track apps on users’ smartphone

The micro-blogging site Twitter has launched a new move to track, which apps had been installed on users' cellphone.

"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," Twitter said in a post on its website.

Twitter plans to use the "app graph" to give more tailored content, give suggestions on whom to follow plus add tweets and other content to users' timeline.

"We are only collecting the list of applications you have installed. We are not collecting any data within the applications," the post clarifies.

In a recent move, Twitter had started showing tweets from users people did not follow, using an algorithm to identify likely favourites.

The website also recommends whom users could follow based on people in their network. The knowledge of which apps its users had gave the site more information to work upon.

Users can stop the data collection at any time from their phone settings it they wish.

CNET reported that Twitter had assured users that it would only track which applications they had installed, not any data from within the applications.

The move would obviously help advertisers better target users, for example users who had health and fitness related apps installed could see  more fitness-related ads, while music subscriptions services could target users with offers or incentives to switch from rivals.

According to commentators the app tracking could also relate back to the Instant Timeline feature the micro-blogging network announced earlier this month.

The service would allow new users to list a few interests and then have a timeline of who to follow curated for them. New users could synch this information with a list of apps to create a better experience themselves.

Twitter was not the only service to be tracking it users' apps, Facebook checked which apps users had installed that used the Facebook SDK to better target advertising of Facebook games and applications. WhatsApp would also retrieve a list of applications users ran.