Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Monday, Mar 27, 2023

EU privacy enforcer puts Elon Musk on notice as Twitter melts down

EU privacy enforcer puts Elon Musk on notice as Twitter melts down

Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon is worried about verification and job losses

Add this to the list of Elon Musk's problems at Twitter: The work he'll have to do convincing Europe's top privacy enforcer that his platform isn't breaking the law.

Ireland's data protection chief — who oversees Twitter's operations in Europe — told POLITICO she is worried about a range of issues at the platform, namely a paid membership program that allowed fraudsters to impersonate real accounts and sent out false messages and wrought havoc on the share prices of major firms.

The fake accounts that popped up after Musk introduced a paid-for "blue check" verification program – now on hold – raise potential problems under Europe's privacy rulebook, Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon said on the sidelines of a conference in Brussels.

"We're now proactively engaging [with Twitter] and asking, 'look, there is a lot of reporting around changes to verified accounts and blue ticks and phishing accounts. What risk assessments are being run and what are the implications for European users?" she said.

Dixon added that she would be "probing" these points with Twitter's acting privacy chief, Renato Leite Monteiro, who's been in his new job for just over a week and at Twitter since 2020.

Twitter's hemorrhaging of staffers who engage with regulators and investigators is another worry for Dixon, whose office has imposed fines totaling more than €600 million since the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came online in 2018. Damien Kieran, an Irishman formerly in charge of privacy at Twitter, and the firm's chief information security officer, Lea Kissinger, were among hundreds of Twitter employees to depart the company in a round of layoffs on November 10.

"Security is clearly part of data protection. And of course, we've also read that the chief security officer is gone," said Dixon.

While Dixon said the new privacy chief had reassured her about compliance, it's not clear whether enough staff remains to engage with any legal enquiries from regulators. Dublin already has two open investigations into Twitter that predate Musk's arrival, and Dixon said her office would be "probing" the company's directors about the blue tick program and any other privacy matters that may arise.

"We have, interestingly, of course, got an investigation underway into Twitter security," she said. "We're at the stage of having a final inquiry report, and then I will proceed to make the decision in relation to what the investigators in my office established. So that would be an interesting exercise in terms of sending that out to Twitter, looking at the submissions that they make on us, and testing the accuracy of the factual descriptions that we have," she said.

"And, you know, we won't be idle in terms of probing what is happening," she added.


Last days of Twitter?


Amid the latest wave of resignations, speculation about a collapse of the platform and his diminishing personal wealth, scrutiny from Dublin may not be top of mind for Musk.

But the risk of falling afoul of EU privacy law would add to the financial misery for the billionaire, who paid $44 billion for a company experts say is now worth a fraction of that price.

Elon Musk is handling the latest wave of resignations, speculation about a collapse of Twitter and his diminishing personal wealth


If Dixon's investigators find that Twitter has violated the GDPR, the firm could be on the hook for fines amounting to up to 4 percent of its global turnover, or more than a billion dollars according to the firm's value when it delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on November 8.

Already, other European privacy watchdogs are pressing Dixon for answers about what's going on at Twitter. "Are you satisfied? What have we been told? What are we proactively doing? You know, what are the next steps? What impact has it on the investigations that they're aware we have underway already?" she said of their questions.

"I've chatted to them here, but we may try to do something more systemically with all 27 [European data protection authorities)," said Dixon, whose office is in charge of overseeing Twitter's operations across the EU, in coordination with other national watchdogs.

The answer to the question "what's going on at Twitter" is a dizzying one.

In the past few hours alone, dozens more employees have announced they are leaving Twitter, including staff on key engineering teams in charge of making sure the site is operating properly.

Previous rounds saw an exodus of support staff, including Twitter's chief lobbyist in Brussels, Stephen Turner, and key compliance roles.

Dixon said she'd met with Kieran, the former privacy chief, on November 8, only to discover two days later that he'd been laid off. And while he has been quickly replaced, it's unclear who else is in place to answer Dixon's questions.

"There are other things around the office of the Data Protection Officer, it strikes us, that are going to be important, for example, in transparency, and in responsiveness terms to data subjects around the exercise of their rights," she said.

"And we're certainly having it reported to us that journalists are finding it difficult to get people to speak," she said. "So we will have to examine carefully whether data subjects are complaining to us that they're having trouble exercising rights or getting responses or getting accurate and up-to-date information on the website."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
Close
0:00
0:00
In a dramatic U-turn against His Government: Judicial Overhaul Legislation Must Be Halted, Says Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
Powell: Silicon Valley Bank was an 'outlier'
Bordeaux town hall set on fire in France pro democracy protest
Police violence in Paris
Paris: Some of the police are stepping down and showing solidarity with the protesters.
Donald Trump arrested – Twitter goes wild with doctored pictures
NYPD is setting up barricades outside Manhattan Criminal Court ahead of Trump arrest.
Credit Suisse's Scandalous History Resulted in an Obvious Collapse - It's time for regulators who fail to do their job to be held accountable and serve as an example by being behind bars.
Goldman Sachs cuts outlook for European bank debt over Credit Suisse crisis
Paris Rioting vs Macron anti democratic law
'Sexual Fantasy' Assignment At US School Outrages Parents
The US government has charged Chinese businessman Guo Wengui with leading a $1 billion fraud scheme that cheated thousands of followers out of their money.
Credit Suisse to borrow $54 billion from Swiss central bank
The BBC problem about China
Russian Hackers Preparing New Cyber Assault Against Ukraine
"Will Fly Wherever International Law Allows": US Warns Russia After Drone Incident
If this was in Tehran, Moscow or Hong Kong
Announcing GPT-4
TRUMP: "Standing before you today, I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War III."
China is calling out the US, UK, and Australia on their submarine pact, claiming they are going further down a dangerous road
A brief banking situation report
We are witnessing widespread bank fails and the president just gave a 5 min speech then walked off camera.
Donald Trump's asked by Tucker Carlson question on if the U.S. should support regime change in Russia?.
'No relation to the American SVB': India's SVC Bank acts to calm depositors amid brand name confusion.
Good news: The U.S. government is now guaranteeing all deposits, held by, Silicon Valley Bank, and the funds are available as of today
Silicon Valley Bank exec was Lehman Brothers CFO
In a potential last-ditch effort, HSBC is considering a rescue deal to save Silicon Valley Bank UK from insolvency
Saudi Arabia has announced a major breakthrough in diplomacy with Iran after two years of intense talks
Elon Musk Is Planning To Build A Town In Texas For His Employees
The Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse effect is spreading around the world, affecting startup companies across the globe
City officials in Berlin announced on Thursday that all swimmers at public pools will soon be allowed to swim topless
Fitness scam
Market Chaos as USDC Loses Peg to USD after $3.3 Billion Reserves Held by Silicon Valley Bank Closed.
A primitive judge in Australia sparked outrage when he told a breastfeeding woman to leave his courtroom for being “a distraction"
Barcelona is feeling the heat as they face corruption charges over payments to former vice-president of Spain's referees' committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira
Banking regulators close SVB, the largest bank failure since the financial crisis
Silicon Valley Bank: Struggles Threaten Tech Startup Ecosystem"
The unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an immigrant himself, defends new controversial crackdown on illegal migration
Old clip of Bill Gates saying Ukraine is a big, fat, corrupt sinkhole is going viral
Man’s penis amputated by mistake after he’s wrongly diagnosed with a tumour
2 universities in Hong Kong embrace use of ChatGPT, other AI tools
In a major snub to Downing Street's Silicon Valley dreams, UK chip giant Arm has dealt a serious blow to the government's economic strategy by opting for a US listing
Missing Chinese banker was working to set up Singapore family office
Hong Kong ditches Covid mask mandate after 945 days
Xi Jinping and His Wife Meet with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk
How do stolen goods end up on Amazon, eBay and Facebook Marketplace?
It's the question on everyone's lips: could a four-day workweek be the future of employment?
Is Gold the Ultimate Safe Haven Asset in Times of Uncertainty?
Spain officials quit over trains that were too wide for tunnels...
Hello. Here is our news digest from London.
×