What Twitter's 'Do Not Track' Feature Will Mean For You [UPDATED]

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When a Firefox user enables Do Not Track, the browser prevents websites from using cookies to track the user's behavior and personal information. Do Not Track only works on sites that have signed on to the service -- a list which now includes Twitter.

Cookies can be used for many purposes, including storing information that some, including Google, argue makes browsing the web easier (a weather site might remember your postal code, for example). However, some believe that cookie-based tracking is a breach of privacy. Facebook has previously come under fire for following users around non-Facebook sites.

Cookies are also an essential ingredient for websites serving up advertisements based on user's behavior or location, called "behavioral ads."

Different sites use cookies for different purposes. According to Twitter's privacy guide, Twitter uses cookies to learn how users interact with its services, monitor web traffic and improve its products. It will now also use them to suggest new accounts for users to follow based on their interests.

If you enable Do Not Track, you're opting out of having your data collected for those purposes, making you, your profile and your tweets more anonymous. Wave goodbye to the new account suggestions -- but that may be all you're missing out on.

Do Not Track is, at its core, a trade off. It asks of you: Do you prefer ease of use and customized user suggestions or more anonymity from web services? According to Mozilla, 8.6% of desktop Firefox users and 19% of mobile users are choosing the latter, with nearly half of those users reporting they feel more safe surfing the Internet with Do Not Track enabled.

Update: In a new blog post, Twitter suggests that Do Not Track will only impact suggestions of users to follow. A Twitter spokesperson told Mashable that Do Not Track will have no impact on Twitter's advertising methods.

For more information on Do Not Track, visit Mozilla's website.

We reached out to Twitter for further information about Do Not Track. We will update this post with any response.