Twitter is requiring third-party applications to be more transparent about their info collection, and social marketers should consider how this might impact the social data available to them.

Twitter has announced that it now requires third-party applications to boost their permission processes. This will enable users to adjust their privacy settings, and it may impact the social sharing information marketers access across the web.

The microblogging site explains that this update aims to give users more control. This may be especially important to making consumers feel secure in light of recent whispers against Google regarding its social data sharing, as well as scandals like Locationgate that had mobile users concerned over location data collection.

Twitter says the changes come in response to user demand. The company requires third-party apps to be transparent about activities that users may or may not want to allow. “These activities may include reading your Tweets, seeing who you follow, updating your profile, posting Tweets on your behalf, or accessing your direct messages,” the company says.

Twitter marketers may benefit from users' heightened sense of security as they share content across the microblogging site, but they should also bear in mind that any consumer-facing third party apps they rely on to monitor brand engagement may lose the data they covet.

If data is lost in the new privacy settings, there are a number of tools brands can use to monitor their social influence on Twitter. As Brafton has reported, measuring social media ROI is a priority for many businesses this year.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.