Parliament panel grills Twitter officials over data security, privacy
New Delhi(PTI): A parliamentary panel questioned top Twitter officials over a whistle-blower's revelations on its India operations, and gave them a dressing-down as their replies on issues of data security and privacy were "not satisfactory", sources said.
The officials from the company, however, refuted the whistle-blower's allegations and denied there was any data security breach in India, the sources said.
Top Twitter executives, including Senior Director (Public Policy) Samiran Gupta and Director (Public Policy) Shagufta Kamran, deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology chaired by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday.
The panel questioned them about the reports on former head of Twitter (security) Peiter Zatko's allegations the microblogging site knowingly allowed the Indian government to place its "agents" on the company payroll where they had "direct unsupervised access to the company's systems and user data".
The Twitter officials denied any such thing having happened, sources in the panel said.
The members also questioned the social media giant's officials if their data security policies is in sync with local policies and with the single global privacy policy.
They asked how does the microblogging site handles conflicts in national privacy policies of different countries, with the sources saying the executives didn't give satisfactory replies.
They also evaded questions about data safety and privacy, a member said, following which they were reprimanded by the MPs. Zatko's allegations were reported by international media houses.
Twitter has already stated it was a "false narrative" and the allegations and "opportunistic" timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on the company, its customers and its shareholders.
The Tharoor-led panel has been holding meetings with various stakeholders including tech companies, social media firms, ministries and other regulators on the issue of citizens' data security and privacy.
The parliamentary committee is also working on a comprehensive report on data privacy and security.
Besides Tharoor, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, TRS MP Ranjith Reddy, BJP's Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and CPI(M)'s John Brittas attended the meeting.
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2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
