Twitter to Shower Users With Balloons on Birthdays

A new feature about wishing birthdays has been released by Twitter.

If today is your birthday, first off, happy birthday. Now, if you choose to share your birthday on your profile, it will. To add their birth date, birth month, or the birth year separately to their profiles, users simply have to select the “Edit Profile” option on the social network and add the details.

Castro cited the Twitter account of American actor-comedian Kevin Hart, where virtual balloons were displayed on his profile page on his birthday. By filling out your date of birth, you’re not only getting a screen full of balloons and more timely congratulatory tweets, but you’re making yourself an easier target for marketing. Thereafter, there is the new birthday setting that has a day, week and month menu and visibility setting that lets you choose an option from “My followers”, “People I follow”, “We follow each other” and “Only me”.

Privacy watchdog Jeffrey Chester says Twitter users should think twice before adding birthdays to profiles.

If you’re on Facebook you probably get slammed with birthday wishes when that special day rolls around, and now Twitter wants to make sure you don’t feel left out on its own service. “Twitter will do anything to twist a few more pennies from its advertisers, including using information about our birthday and who celebrates it”, said Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.