Social networking website Twitter announced on Monday that it will roll out a new feature that will allow its users to share their birth date information on their respective profile.
Among the first few celebrities to embrace the new feature was comedian Kevin Hart. The comedian, who has more than 20 million followers on Twitter, celebrated his 36th birthday on Monday.
Twitter product manager Ricardo Castro wrote in a post, "Your birth date is a completely optional part of your profile and you have full control over who can see it."
The new feature from Twitter is optional. Users have full control whether they want to share this information to the public. Users also has to option to share this information to the public, people that follow them, people they follow or "only me."
While this feature is already available in some social network website like Facebook, many analysts speculate that there is a far bigger reason behind the roll out of this new feature. According to USA Today, having direct access to a person's birth day along with other sensitive information like home address and Social Security number makes them a vulnerable target for identity thieves.
Additionally, knowing a person's birth date means that advertisers and marketers can send out specific ads based on a person's age bracket. Twitter admitted that using the new birthday feature will "show you more relevant content, including ads."
According to CNet, Twitter's new feature is the company's last attempt in order to attract more people to use its service. Moreover, it also aims to increase its advertising revenue.