Twitter to start snooping in your phone

Twitter will start snooping in your phone to see what apps you have installed, to be able to send more tailored ads your way. From their very own support document:

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. If you’re not interested in a tailored experience you can adjust your preferences at any time (read below). Additionally, if you have previously opted out of interest-based ads by turning on “Limit Ad Tracking” on your iOS device or by adjusting your Android device settings to “Opt out of interest-based ads,” we will not collect your apps unless you adjust your device settings.

First of all: fuck no! Turn this off, at the vey least.

Second, if this isn’t incentive to limit ad tracking in your mobile device’s settings, I don’t know what is. Go and do that now if you haven’t already.

And finally, third, this is just the official Twitter app snooping around, third-party apps won’t necessarily do this. Granted, the market for third-party Twitter app is strained at best, with Twitter slowly killing it off while trying to limit the backlash of their actions. If snooping around is in their business model (which it is, since ads are their way of making money), you should probably stay clear of their apps.

These are not the actions of a company that means well.