How to keep some of your Twitter data away from advertisers

In April 2020, Twitter began sharing more of our information with advertisers. The notice came via a rather odd notification that said "your ability to control mobile app advertising metrics has been removed" - essentially meaning that Twitter was now sharing data such as which ads you viewed or with. interacted with, along with your phone's tracking ID. Previously you could disable this – not anymore. (Unless you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, where there are additional protections.)

ContentsUsing the Twitter mobile app:Using the web version of Twitter:Turn off ad personalizationSee your Twitter data

Although this protection has been removed, there are still a few privacy tools available that can give you at least some measure of how much of your data is shared with advertisers. If you're concerned about privacy, it's worth taking a few minutes to find and turn them off. To do this, you must go to the “Personalization and data” page.

Using the Twitter mobile application:

• Tap the three lines in the upper left corner.
• Select "Settings &Privacy"> "Privacy &Security"> "Personalization &Data"

Using the web version of Twitter:

• Log in to your Twitter account.
• Use this link to access the Personalization and Data page.

The rest of this article will assume that you are using the web version.

Disable ads personalization

On the "Personalization &Data" page, you'll find several ad settings that allow Twitter to "further personalize" your advertising using information based on your "inferred identity", location, or other factors. (Go ahead and read all the descriptions – they're worth knowing.) You can choose to enable any of these settings if you want, but if not, use the toggle at the top of the page to disable all settings on the page.

See your Twitter data

If you want to take it a step further, and check what other data Twitter knows about you (and possibly delete at least some of it), scroll down to the "Personalization and data" page and click on “View your Twitter data. Check out all these topics; you might be surprised by some of the information there. Here is a brief summary of each.

• Account. These are all basic things, like your name, your age range, if you have a verified account, and what other languages ​​you speak. (I was amused that Twitter thinks I speak German. Ok, Twitter, whatever.)
• Account history. This contains two separate areas:a list of other accounts that have access to your account and a list of places you've been. It's a good idea to check the first to see if there are any services that have access to your account that shouldn't; you can revoke permission on the Connected Apps page. If you don't want Twitter to know where you are or where you've been, use Location Settings to turn off access.
• Applications, devices and information. There are two sections here. "Apps, Devices, and Information" is where you can find some of the devices and browsers that Twitter obtains information from, assuming you allow it. This is meant when Twitter asked to "Personalize based on your inferred identity" on the "Personalization and data page", and it is one of the permissions that can be revoked there. The second, "Connected Apps", is another way to access many of the pages already mentioned here.
• Account activity. This allows you to see which accounts you have blocked or ignored.

• Interests and advertising data. Here's a section you can spend a lot of time with, especially with "Twitter Interests", which shows you all the various interests that Twitter has associated with you based on your activity. If you're planning on looking into this in depth, set aside a few minutes:One of my Twitter accounts had 742 interests listed, including a few odd ones. As someone who has no interest in sports, I would like to know how Twitter offered "NBA videos" as one of my interests.

The other two categories here, "Deemed Partner Interests" and "Custom Audiences", can be turned off using the "Personalization and Data" page.

• Finally, "Download Archive" allows you to download your account history and activity archive.

Want to be really safe? You might just want to bite the bullet and completely delete your Twitter history.