Twitter starts 'targeted ads', but you can opt out

For the first time, Twitter will begin allowing advertisers to target users based on their browsing history, which will include email addresses. Twitter will use cookies, an online tracking technology that has been used for years by companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon.

But in a move that will differentiate itself from Facebook, Twitter will allow users to opt out of the third-party access by way of unchecking a box in their account settings.

[caption id="attachment_927733" align="alignleft" width="380"] A representative image of the Twitter logos. AFP[/caption]

According to a report on adage.com, Twitter will use a process called "hashing" so that users used to enable the anonymous match are provided in a scrambled, unreadable form. Twitter advertisers who use these features will also be able to apply other targeting parameters such as geography and interests to categorise their audiences.

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Twitter noted in a blog post on Wednesday that its use of cookies was "how most other companies handle this practice, and we don't give advertisers any additional user information." Twitter also said it would give its users the option of disabling cookies by enabling a "Do Not Track" option in their browser.

Leading browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer also contain such options.