Twitter shareholders approved Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout offer or $54.20 per share on Tuesday. Almost 25% less than the sale price, the company’s stock began Tuesday at slightly under $41 per share.
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The vote came days after Musk wrote Twitter a third letter asking for their agreement to be terminated. This letter was linked to an alleged $7.75 million severance payment that Twitter allegedly made to its former head of security, Peiter Zatko, who later revealed the company’s purported security and privacy flaws.
Zatko’s testimony on Capitol Hill came to an end shortly before the vote’s results were made public.
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Zatko discussed a variety of issues with members of Congress during a lengthy hearing that lasted more than two hours.
According to Zatko, Twitter is incredibly open to intrusion and abuse by agents of other governments. At one time during his employment, according to Zatko, he confided in an executive that he was certain a foreign agent was employed at a foreign office. The executive allegedly said, “Well, since we already have one, what is the problem if we have more? Let’s keep growing the office,” according to Zatko.
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Zatko claimed that Twitter was more concerned about international regulators like the French data protection authority, CNIL, than it was about the US Federal Trade Commission. He explained that Twitter believed US regulators would simply issue one-time fines or penalties in response to any legal transgressions the business may have committed. These penalties were “priced in” to its operations, he claimed.
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Zatko went into depth about some of the personal data that Twitter gathers about its users, such as their phone numbers, emails, IP addresses, and the places from which they access the service.
According to Zatko, Twitter does not fully comprehend all of the user information it gathers, why it is collected, or where it is kept.