Twitter Inc. will meet with its European Union data protection watchdog next week after a raft of firings and the resignation of its chief privacy officer, prompting concerns about the safety of users’ personal data.
(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc.
will meet with its European Union data protection watchdog next week after a raft of firings and the resignation of its chief privacy officer, prompting concerns about the safety of users’ personal data.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the lead watchdog for some of the biggest US tech giants with bases in the bloc, said under EU rules a company with a European base must have a data protection officer and this person must be available to contact when needed.
“In light of the coverage over the last 24 hours about the departure of senior staff, including the data protection officer, we want to establish with Twitter that they are going to be continuing to make decisions from their Irish office,” Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner at the authority, said by phone.
Twitter has seen a tumultuous few days since Elon Musk bought the company, after he fired around 3,700 of Twitter’s global workforce, ushered out several executives and ordered the remaining employees to stop working from home.
Under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation privacy regulators across the bloc have powers to fine companies as much as 4% of annual sales for serious violations of data privacy.
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To be able to continue using Ireland as their EU base, “the decisions that are made in terms of the processing of personal data for EU users must take place in that country,” as well, said Doyle.
“If they’re not, that will have a knock on effect on their ability to avail of the main establishment.”
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