Twitter Updates Privacy Policy and Ends 'Do Not Track' Support

Twitter on Wednesday announced some privacy policy updates and new tools to give you more control over how your information is used. But it has also discontinued support for the Do Not Track browser preference.

It should now be a little easier to keep tabs on how Twitter is using your information and which advertisers target you on the platform. In Settings, visit the newly expanded "Your Twitter Data" section (located on the right-side column on desktop) to see which advertisers have included you in their "Tailored Audiences." When I checked this morning, Twitter said I was part of "10,718 audiences from 2,140 advertisers."

You can request an advertiser list and/or head to a new "Personalized and Data" section, which lets you easily opt out of things like personalized ads and data tracking. Among the options in this section is one to "personalize across your devices." If you leave this turned on, Twitter will associate your device with your account and "personalize your experience based on information from other devices besides the ones you use to log into Twitter." This means if you visit sports websites on your laptop, you might see sports-related ads when you're browsing Twitter on your mobile device.

You may see a notice informing you about the recent privacy policy changes the next time you visit the microblogging service, if you haven't seen it already. It gives you the option to review you settings or click "Sounds good" and proceed to Twitter; if you choose the latter, you'll be opted in to most of the new settings.

In a blog post, Twitter said it has "expanded" the way it uses and stores data from other websites that integrate content from the platform, such as embedded tweets. The company is storing "web page visit data," but not for users in the European Union or European Free Trade Association states.

This data collection "will allow us to further improve and personalize our services, connecting you with the stories, brands and organic content you care about most," the company said.

Meanwhile, Twitter said that some of its partnership agreements allow "non-personal, aggregated and device-level data" to be connected with personal information such as your name and email, "but only when you give your consent to those partners."

Finally, it should also be noted that Twitter has discontinued support for the Do Not Track browser preference. "While we had hoped that our support for Do Not Track would spur industry adoption, an industry-standard approach to Do Not Track did not materialize," Twitter said. "We now offer more granular privacy controls."