Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko testified before US Congress on Tuesday. During a lengthy, over two-hour session, Zatko spoke with members of Congress about a range of topics.
According to Zatko, agents of other governments can easily snoop about and exploit Twitter. Zatko said he confided in an executive at one point while he was working there that he was certain a foreign agent was working at a foreign office. Zatko also claimed the executive is reported to have remarked, “Well, since we already have one, what is the problem if we have more? Let’s keep growing the office.”
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According to Zatko, Twitter is more worried about foreign authorities like the French CNIL, which is in charge of data protection, than it is about the US Federal Trade Commission. He explained that Twitter thought any legal violations the company may have committed would only result in one-time fines or penalties from US regulators. He asserted that these fines were “priced in” to its business practises.
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Zatko went into great detail regarding some of the private information that Twitter collects about its users, including their phone numbers, emails, IP addresses, and the locations from which they access the service.
Zatko claims that Twitter is not completely aware of all the user data it collects, the purposes for its collection, and the locations in which it is stored.
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According to Zatko, a Twitter employee might take control of senators’ accounts and tweet on their behalf. Despite the fact that he never witnessed such a thing occur during his time at the firm, he asserted that “it’s not far-fetched to say a Twitter employee could take over the accounts of all of the senators in this room.”
Shortly after Zatko’s testimony, the shareholders of Twitter approved Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase offer, or $54.20 per share. The shares of the company opened Tuesday at slightly less than $41 per share, which was over 25% less than the sale price.