• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 18, 2017

Twitter users are being given more control over how advertisers can engage with them on the social network.

The change is part of a new set of privacy and data controls, which Twitter unveiled on Thursday. New personalization and data settings offer users more control over how Twitter can exploit their data, personalize their interfaces, and whether information may be shared with brand partners.

Users can now opt out of various types of data usage and sharing with what Twitter promises is a "single switch." Twitter has also expanded how it uses and stores data from other Web sites, which integrate Twitter content like embedded Tweets.

In addition, Twitter has updated how it shares nonpersonal, aggregated and device-level data, including through some select partnership agreements, which allow the data to be linked to users’ names, emails, and other personal information.

Twitter on Thursday also announced that it will be participating in the Swiss-US Privacy Shield, and adhering to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising.

Twitter recently reported strong user growth during the first quarter of 2017. The social giant said it added about 9 million new users -- making it the biggest quarterly bump in years.

“We’re really proud to report accelerating growth and daily active usage … up 14%, year-over-year,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told investors on an earnings call, last month.

Year-over-year, average monthly active users jumped 6% from 319 million to 328 million, during the first quarter. Among other factors, Dorsey attributed the rebound to better policing of trolls, bullies and other bad actors.

“We are seeing a significant decrease in the number of people experiencing abuse on Twitter,” Dorsey said. Twitter is also doing a better job as rolling out new products, and meeting the needs of average users, he added.

For the first quarter, Twitter reported revenue of $548 million -- down 8% year-over-year. Still, analysts were pleasantly surprised by Twitter’s user growth.