Twitter autorefresh when not scrolled or overlaid v2.3resigned1
For any twitter.com tab, the plugin runs a repeating 1.5 second timer, checking to see if the "load new tweets" element is visible. If so, and if no twitter overlay is open, it will click that element to load new tweets.
It doesn't collect or use any user data, and it's unlikely that twitter can tell that it's being used at all.