FAQs about tailored suggestions
What are tailored suggestions?
Tailored suggestions are recommendations of accounts to follow that are most relevant to you. We use tailored suggestions to make it easier and faster to get started on Twitter and find people who are talking about things you care about. This helps you discover interesting accounts to follow on Twitter and brings you closer to the things you care about with just a few clicks or taps.
Where will I see tailored suggestions?
For new users, tailored suggestions will show you a list of accounts that we recommend you follow, alongside a timeline filled with Tweets from those accounts. You’ll see a Twitter experience that’s relevant to you right when you sign up. (Of course, you can always choose to not follow the suggested accounts that don’t interest you.)
For current users, you may see tailored suggestions in “Who to follow” so you can continue to find interesting and relevant accounts that are new to you.
Why are tailored suggestions better?
Tailored suggestions are smarter and more relevant account recommendations that make it easier and faster for everyone to get started on Twitter. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people sign up for Twitter to get closer to the things they care about — friends, businesses, celebrities, news and information from all over. If you’ve used Twitter for a while, you know it can take some effort to create a timeline that really reflects your interests.
How do you find tailored suggestions for me?
We determine the people you might enjoy following based on your recent visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem (sites that have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets). Specifically, our feature works by suggesting people who are frequently followed by other Twitter users that visit the same websites.
How do you know which sites people have visited?
Buttons and widgets from various companies, including Twitter, are widely available across the web, and millions of people interact with them every day. When you visit pages with Twitter buttons or widgets, we receive information about the page visit so we can provide the content and functionality of our buttons or widgets. Like many web services, we use cookie technology to improve Twitter. A unique cookie, combined with the page visit information we receive, enables us to make tailored suggestions.
How long do you store this information?
To protect your privacy, after a maximum of 10 days, we start the process of deleting or removing account identifiers from the data collected about your page visits, as explained in our privacy policy. We may keep aggregate or de-identified information, such as the number of visitors to a page.
Can I turn off tailored suggestions and stop this collection?
Yes. We are committed to providing you with simple and meaningful choices about the information we collect to improve your Twitter experience. For those who don’t want to tailor Twitter, we offer several ways to turn off this feature:
- For users signing up to Twitter on the web, you can uncheck the box that says Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits.
- After signup, you can uncheck that box in your Privacy and safety settings next to the heading Personalization.
- Anyone can turn on the Do Not Track browser setting to turn off Tailored Suggestions. Learn more about Twitter’s support for the Do Not Track preference.
What website visits does Twitter use for tailored suggestions?
Tailored suggestions are based on visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem (sites that have integrated a Twitter button or widget and have not opted out of tailoring). We don’t collect this information from visits to certain domains, such as .mil and .gov domains. We also don’t use website visits for tailored suggestions if you have turned off the feature or are in Europe.