Skip to main content

Twitter refutes the whistleblowers allegation of its shady deal with the Indian govt: What is it

Former Twitter security head Peiter "Mudge" Zatko has alleged that the Indian government forced the micro-blogging platform to hire a "government agent" and allow him access to users' sensitive data, a claim that has been trashed by Twitter. Zatko's whistleblower disclosure in a 84-page page, submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was obtained by CNN and The Washington Post on Tuesday. In a section titled 'Penetration by Foreign Intelligence & Threats to Democracy', Zatko claimed that "the Indian government forced Twitter to hire specific individual(s) who were government agents, who (because of Twitter's basic architectural flaws) would have access to vast amounts of Twitter sensitive data". "By knowingly permitting an Indian government agent direct unsupervised access to the company's systems and user data, Twitter executives violated the company's commitments to its users," he claimed. Zatko, who reported directly to the CEO, was fired by Twitter in January this year over "poor performance". Last month, he filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating an agreement it made with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uphold certain security standards. In a statement to Spectrum News, a Twitter spokesperson said Zatko was a disgruntled former employee who is making untrue claims. "Zatko was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter in January 2022 for ineffective leadership and poor performance," the spokesperson was quoted as saying. "What we've seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context," the company spokesperson added. Zatko also alleged that the Indian government forced Twitter to hire local full-time employees that "could be used as leverage". "The threat of harm to Twitter employees was sufficient to cause Twitter to seriously consider complying with foreign government requests that Twitter would otherwise fundamentally oppose," he claimed.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.



from Internet News https://ift.tt/9V3h0Mv

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What if a botched Google search card says you are a serial killer

Many of us have come to heavily rely on Google Search and often don’t question the veracity of information Google cherry-picks from the vast data available on the world wide web for its search cards. This incident, which is one part funny and two parts scary, makes it clear that Google’s Knowlege Graph may not be as sacrosanct as you may have believed.  Hristo Georgiev was informed by a former colleague that a Google search of his name returned a Google Knowlege Graph that depicted his photo and linked it to a Bulgarian rapist and serial killer of the same name, also known as ‘The Sadist’, who murdered five people back in the 1970s and was later executed by shooting.  The graph linked the info to a Wikipedia article, which incidentally had no link to any of Georgiev’s profile or his image. It was Google’s algorithms that erroneously matched the two. What’s even more problematic is that Hristo Georgiev is not a unique name and is shared by hundreds of other people.  As...

MWC 2023: A comparison of the top 4 Xiaomi 13 vs Xiaomi 13 Pro features

Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro globally a day before MWC 2023. And if you are planning to buy a new Xiaomi flagship phone, you may need clarity on the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro differences. The latter is the bigger, better, and pricier model of the two.  So, what we will be doing here is comparing the specs, features and price of these two phones and finding out which one better fits your bill. Xiaomi 13 vs Xiaomi 13 Pro comparison These differences between Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro might affect your buying decision. We will be comparing the two Xiaomi phones based on their design, display, performance factors, battery, camera, and price. 1. Design Xiaomi 13 Pro is slightly thicker and heavier than Xiaomi 13. It comes with Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the front and a ceramic back option. 2. Display Xiaomi 13 Pro has got a curvy-edged display whilst the regular 13 has a flat front panel. The Pro model has an LTPO screen which means an adaptive refres...