Twitter wants to help you celebrate — the social network is now offering users the option of adding their birthday to their profile.
Birthdays will be displayed at the top left, beneath the profile picture — right below the date when the user joined Twitter. The company will also help create a festive air with balloons — which will float up the display screen of a user on their big day.
"Every day, millions of people celebrate the important events in their lives on Twitter — from public events like the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ignited #LoveWins to more personal ones like a friend's birthday," said the company in a blog post. "We're excited to make sharing these personal celebrations even easier — starting today, you'll be able to show your birthday on your Twitter profile."
Twitter gave the example of Kevin Hart, whose birthday happens to land on July 6. Hart is however a public figure, whose birthday can easily be found on the Internet. As for regular folks, there's some question as to whether everyone else should reveal their birthday on the social media network. Depending on the user's privacy settings, they could be sharing their birthday with everyone who wants to see it on Twitter — regardless of whether they follow or are followed by the birthday user.
Privacy watchdogs suggest that users should think twice before giving Twitter access to their birthday, largely because Twitter relies on this type of information for advertising. While it might seem like a cool idea to have your birthday on Twitter and to enjoy a pretty profile page on your special day, it's really Twitter that stands to gain here.
Of course, entering your birthday on Twitter is completely optional. Not only that, but Twitter is also offering users ways to control which parts of their birthday they want to share. A user could simply say their birthday is on July 6 — keeping the year private and not revealing how old they are.
For those who decide to put their birthday on the social media network, it is pretty easy. Simply head to the "edit profile" option on your profile page and then choose the day, month and year of your birth. Make sure to also set the privacy settings to something you're comfortable with.
