How to use Twitter without giving your user data to Elon Musk

Maybe you don’t want to be a Twitter user, or you have a Twitter login that you don’t want to use, but would still like to read tweets. This is…to some extent Possible, but Twitter certainly adds to the odds.

However, there are ways to make it easier to browse Twitter without login. This can be accomplished by installing the browser extension Breakthrough Twitter Login Wall.

Why would you want to browse Twitter without login

The owner of Twitter is Elon Musk, the richest person in the world. Musk advocates for right-wing — and in at least one case, far-right — political candidates, which is his right, but also makes him a partisan activist who owns a platform for digital communications. Instead of treading carefully in light of this uncertain situation, he has proven himself ready to post surprisingly harsh and divisive memesAnd speak disparagingly towards his critics.

In recent weeks, he has abruptly purged half of Twitter’s payroll, laying off thousands in an effort to make the company financially viable, even as he denies wanting to profit from it. does. And he’s responded to his company’s declining revenue not by promising to be a better manager, but by chastely complaining about it. Activists seeking to disrupt his effort to rebuild Twitter around his concept of free speech,

Musk, again, is free to run his company and his life as he pleases. However, any pearl-grabbing on Musk’s part about people reacting badly to his attempt to remake Twitter is pure theatrics. While he constantly broadcasts his views through his app, to the millions of people he actively chooses to resent and oppose every day, he has every right to obstruct his pet project.

With this in mind, Twitter – and therefore Musk – makes money from your user data. Notably, in 2021, Twitter is expected to earn nearly $500 million from data sales, according to app industry blog Business of Apps. That’s not much compared to the $4.5 billion the same site earned that year from ads. But given that some advertising agencies are recommending that their clients don’t pay Twitter for now, and Musk has said he wants Twitter to rely less on advertising revenue, Twitter’s data sales revenue may be more important than ever.

Oh, and having a Twitter account is known to be a compulsive behavior. So if you’re someone who’s been avoiding Twitter because you use it compulsively, but you want to read tweets anyway, it’s probably a good idea not to log in.

What happens if you browse Twitter without an account?

if you’re using a mobile browser and you go to Twitter.com Without a login, you will immediately be taken to the “Login Wall” and asked to sign in.

If you see a Tweet that interests you, and you click on the Twitter account that posted it, you can often scroll through the timeline for a while and enjoy more Tweets from that user. Huh. However, after a while, you’ll see a pop-up urging you to log in if you want to “see more Tweets” from the account you were enjoying.

A popup prompting the user to log in to Twitter or create an account

Credit: Screengrab / Twitter

This pop-up is a dead end for your scrolling session. The only way to close it is to do what’s said or hit the back button on your browser.

If, on the other hand, you start Twitter.com Without having to log in on a desktop browser, you’ll see an Explore page, filled with suggested Tweets and other information about popular topics. Interestingly, according to an anonymous Twitter employee who new York Times, it was a musk innovation. One of the first decisions Musk made after buying Twitter was to “change the logged-out view to the Explore page,” according to that employee, which allows Twitter to “serve ads to people who aren’t logged in. ”

So no, you’re not completely ditching Musk’s gravy train by not having an account. But if you still want to browse without logging in, here’s how:

How To Read Unlimited Tweets Without Logging In

If you use the Chrome browser, Breakthrough Twitter Login Wall, created by a developer in Japan who calls himself Mesomusician, can be installed by visiting the extension’s page on the Chrome Web Store and clicking “Add to Chrome.” Could

The button that installs the Breakthrough Twitter login wall in Chrome
the button that solves your problem
credit: screengrab / google

After clicking it, you will get a popup stating that the extension can read and change your browsing data Twitter.com, Decide whether you’re okay with it or not, and hit “Add Extension” or “Cancel”.

MaySoMusician also created a version of the Breakthrough Twitter Login Wall for Firefox users.

Now that you’re able to read tweets without hitting the login wall, but you can’t follow people, Twitter is a slower — and less addictive — experience. If you’re inclined, you can bookmark profiles of users you find particularly informative or entertaining, and return to them often.

The extent to which Twitter finds it useful or attractive to track and sell the data of people who are using its site without logging in is an open question, and if it does sell such data, it remains an open question. It is a problem worth noting.

But hey, at least Twitter will no longer have information about you including your actual written thoughts and data on the views of others that you “like”, all of which are linked to a profile that includes your name, Includes photo and location.

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