Privacy Group Warns 'There's Nothing Stopping' Elon Musk Accessing Your Twitter DMs

The world's richest man is about to have a treasure trove of invaluable social media data at his fingertips, which has sparked concern amongst privacy groups.

How Musk will wield his power over the popular social networking site is yet to be seen, but that hasn't stopped some from speculating about the tech billionaire's motives.

Greer suggested he could use these DMs and data to provide intel to external parties or to force users to disclose their identities - something which has not previously been required to use Twitter.

"Elon Musk is now literally the king of Twitter," Greer said.

"There is nothing stopping him from accessing your direct messages or handing them over to a government—perhaps one in a country where Tesla is trying to do business."

Bezos has since responded to this on Twitter by sharing a New York Times reporter’s tweet highlighting how China is Tesla’s second biggest market, and that the electric car company is reliant on the country’s supply of batteries. 

Alongside the quote, Bezos wrote: "Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?"

So what are the changes we know that Musk is planning?

Associate professor of cybersecurity law at the United States Naval Academy Jeff Kosseff expressed concern over how users would be expected to share their personal information with Twitter.

"Any small requirement to provide identifying information, even if it doesn’t require you to post under your real name, would really alter the ability of many people to speak online, especially outside the US."

Looks like we will have to wait and see what the future holds for Twitter and its users.