Under fire: When tech titans Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg were questioned by the Senate
Dorsey, while testifying before the US Senate Intelligence Committee said that Twitter feel prey to abuse & propaganda.
By ET Bureau |
Agencies
On the left is Jack Dorsey, and on the right is Mark Zuckerberg.
By Viandra DSouza
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, while testifying before the US Senate Intelligence Committee about election interference, said that Twitter was “meant to be a public square but fell victim to abuse and propaganda”. Here’s what other tech bosses said at Senate hearings.
Mark Zuckerberg In April, the Facebook CEO was grilled by members of the US Senate after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, had gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections. The most striking part of Zuck’s long session was his opening statement in which he repeated the word ‘responsibility’ 35 times.
Marissa Mayer
In November 2017, the former CEO of Yahoo had to appear before the US Senate to testify on two massive data breaches that had affected over three billion people.
Yahoo revealed in October that al l three billion customer accounts had been affected by a breach of its systems in 2013 followed by a second attack in 2014 that hit 500 million accounts.
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Richard Smith During the time of Mayer’s hearing in November 2017, former CEO of Equifax, Inc, Richard Smith was also asked to testify before the Senate after the data breach that affected as many as 145.5 million US consumer.
While Meyer’s apology was criticised, Smith’s was labelled ‘honest’. “As CEO I was ultimately responsible for what happened on my watch.”
Tim Cook
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Apple found itself under fire from the US Senate when the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing about Apple’s tax avoidance practices.
Tim Cook’s defensive testimony about its offshore tax shelter, the US corporate tax rate and its effect on the economy made headlines then. “We get it. We get the lessons of our corporate predecessors.”
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Eric Schmidt In 2011, the former executive chairman of Google testified before a Senate antitrust panel in response to concerns around the company’s business practices and unprecedented power to control the access and flow of information.
The key issue was whether Google uses its massive lead in internet search to unfairly promote its other business lines, such as YouTube, Google Books, or Google Travel.
Facebook Data Breach Making Headlines, Here's How Other Scandals Began
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The Facebook leak was traced back to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge university. Here is the root of other such worldwide breaches.
(Image: Twitter/@AleksandrBKogan)
The Facebook leak was traced back to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge university. Here is the root of other such worldwide breaches.
(Image: Twitter/@AleksandrBKogan)
In 2012, companies like Visa Inc licensee, J C Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA were attacked by hackers, resulting in a collective loss of up to $300 million. A Russian and Ukrainian gang hacked into the records for over seven years, breaching 8,00,000 bank accounts and stealing more than 160 million credit and debit card numbers. While his colleagues did the hacking, 32-year-old Russian Roman Kotov was charged with mining the data.
In 2012, companies like Visa Inc licensee, J C Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA were attacked by hackers, resulting in a collective loss of up to $300 million. A Russi..
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While eBay’s database was hacked earlier in 2014, the news came out only in May that year. The online auction house went into damage control. Its then CEO John Donahue asked 145 million users to change their passwords, but said that financial information was stored separately and hence, remained safe. One mind boggling detail is that the unknown hackers had access to eBay’s accounts for 229 days.
While eBay’s database was hacked earlier in 2014, the news came out only in May that year. The online auction house went into damage control. Its then CEO John Donahue asked 145 million users to chan..
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In 2007, more than 94 million customer accounts belonging to the department store group TJX were compromised. The man behind it, Albert Gonzalez, was also indicted in the Heartland Payment’s data breach, where hackers stole more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from the payment processing system in 2008. College dropout Gonzalez used several screen names like ‘soupnazi’ (a reference to the popular Seinfeld episode), ‘kingchilli’ and ‘cumbajohny’ in the TJX hack. While Gonzalez was arrested in a Miami hotel, officials found $1.6 million in cash hidden in plastic bags in a drum buried at his parent’s backyard. The soupnazi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010.
In 2007, more than 94 million customer accounts belonging to the department store group TJX were compromised. The man behind it, Albert Gonzalez, was also indicted in the Heartland Payment’s data bre..
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The personal records of over 78 million customers were stolen in 2015 from American health insurance giant Anthem. Investigators suspected China’s role in the breach. Apparently, the hack happened in 2014, when just one user at an Anthem subsidiary opened a phishing email. It gave access to the company’s warehouse. In 2017, Anthem reached a settlement of $115 million — the money will reportedly be used to pay for an additional two years of credit monitoring for the breach’s victims.
The personal records of over 78 million customers were stolen in 2015 from American health insurance giant Anthem. Investigators suspected China’s role in the breach. Apparently, the hack happened in..
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Literally every single Yahoo user account was hacked into. In September 2017, Yahoo confirmed that all of its three billion accounts were exposed as part of an August 2013 breach. In a separate incident in 2016, a hacker called Peace put up the company’s user information for sale in the darknet market site, The RealDeal. The news affected Verizon’s takeover of the company, knocking off $350 million from the sale price. Verizon bought out Yahoo in June 2017.
Literally every single Yahoo user account was hacked into. In September 2017, Yahoo confirmed that all of its three billion accounts were exposed as part of an August 2013 breach. In a separate incid..
In 2006, Jack Dorsey Noticed How Fast a Simple SMS Could Update a Whole Group; “Make Status a Product” Spark Established the Foundation for Twitter.2026-05-01T10:57:31Z
