Software downloads policy

What's the policy?

As a provider of services for users, advertisers, publishers and developers, we have created a set of principles for software and applications that are distributed through Twitter and Twitter Exchange Products (MoPub and Twitter Audience Platform).

Twitter reserves the right to suspend any ads or campaigns, or suspend (temporarily or permanently) any advertiser that violates the following guidelines, at Twitter’s sole discretion, including but not limited to:

• Clear Process of Installation
  
  Users must be given clear and accurate notice of all significant functions and features of the application, how it is installed (including if it installs additional bundled software), and must be able to review and reject any system changes the application makes. For example, an application must not include:
• Auto installers;
• Installers that obscure their identity, location, visibility, or use of system resources; 
• Installers that irreversibly, silently or misleadingly change system settings; or,
• Installers that do not provide notice and opt-out of additional bundled software.
• User Privacy, Upfront Disclosure, and Information Sharing
  
  An application must provide a clear and conspicuous disclosure of its privacy policy, including how it uses and shares device and user data with third parties. Also, an application must, at a minimum:
• Disclose all advertising features, and require affirmative and informed consent from a user before collection of a user’s personal information, and before sharing a user’s personal information with any third party; and
• Conform to applicable Twitter privacy policies and related content policies (available at twitter.com/privacy and twitter.com/adspolicy, respectively) as well as relevant regulatory and industry guidelines for advertising and use of device and user information.
• Transparent and User-Expected Application Behaviors
  
  Applications must explain changes that result in unexpected behaviors, and not obscure the changes or reasons for those changes. In particular, an application must not show any unexpected behaviors, including but not limited to the following:
• obscure its identity or fail to identify its own windows and features;
• obscure or block ordinary user controls on the application or device;
• irreversibly, silently or misleadingly change system settings; or,
• without clear and express prior user consent, make system changes that require payment to either undo the changes or restore full device functionality.
• Excluded, Prohibited and Dangerous Application Functionality
  
  An application must not pose a threat to the privacy, security, or safety of a user, the control or functioning of a user device, or the operation of Twitter and its affiliates. For example, an application must not, directly or indirectly, among other prohibited functionalities:
• Perform any ad injection, ad proxying or ad overlay outside the application window itself, or have the primary function of overlaying ads on third party applications or content;
• Interfere with security, authentication and privacy features of Twitter, the user’s device or other services and applications;
• Cause any harm to, damage to, or provide unauthorized access to a device or user data;
• Obscure or misrepresent the source, sponsorship or responsible party for the application or any of its functions, features or costs;
• Provide or link to unlawful, unlicensed, illegal or fraudulent content, goods or services; or,
• Have any function primarily for spamming, spyware, key-logging, silent or unauthorized data collection, user SSL or encryption circumvention, malware, rights management circumvention, virus installation or distribution, black hat search or social network manipulation.
• Simple Removal
  
  Applications must have a clear way to completely uninstall itself and any additional downloads, such as via a device’s normal uninstallation procedures and must not obscure or block ordinary user installation procedures, including but not limited to the following prohibited behaviors:
• Users must not be required to go through a lengthy process of unrelated uninstall tasks, asked to provide personal information, or charged for software removal;
• Uninstallation must comply with the application’s privacy policy, and stop the application from obtaining or sharing any further user [or device] data;

Advertisers’ use of Twitter services are also subject to all other applicable policies, and all relevant agreements between the advertiser and Twitter.

How does this policy vary from country to country? 

This policy applies to Twitter Ads in all countries.

What do advertisers need to know about this policy? 

Review our guidelines and make sure you understand the requirements for your brand and business. You are responsible for all your software and applications that are distributed through Twitter. This includes complying with applicable laws and regulations regarding advertisements.

Have questions or feedback about something on this page? 

If you are an advertiser whose account or Tweets are under review and you would like to check on the status or request an expedited review, please log in to ads.twitter.com and file a support ticket using the Help? button in the top right corner of your ads dashboard.

Learn more about blocking or dismissing ads by reading this article on “Reporting Twitter Ads”. To report an ad that is potentially violating these policies, use the Report an Ad form.

Using Twitter Ads Policy, the Twitter Rules and our Terms of Service, we will examine reported violations and take appropriate action.

If you are interested in advertising on Twitter and want to learn more, please visit business.twitter.com.