Will Elon Musk’s commitments to free speech ruin Twitter and further erode American democracy? That seems to be the main topic of conversation when it comes to the billionaire’s recent takeover of the social media platform, which he announced with an extremely heavy-handed pun two weeks ago. Some pundits have expressed alarm in regard to Musk’s declared mission of promoting free speech on Twitter, warning about the potentially dire consequences for society of loosening the platform’s content moderation policies. Others have argued that more free speech is actually a good thing — but there’s no reason to think that Musk will live up to his espoused ideals.

Fewer voices, though, are sounding the alarm bells about the likely consequences for Twitter’s data and privacy policies with Musk at the helm.

It’s no secret that all social media platforms collect user data. This data can be anything from IP addresses to users’ personal information to messages sent on the platform. These platforms are profitable because they use our data to help promote advertising. To optimize profitability, they either share the information with ad partners, use it internally for their own advertisement programs, or use the data for other marketing and advertising purposes.