Twitter was among the most recognizable brands to join CES, the annual tech show that kicked off in Las Vegas this week. Damien Kieran, Twitter's Global Data Protection Officer, spoke to Cheddar about how his team is ensuring compliance with data protection laws around the world.
"A good example of this recently would be the GDPR and the CCPA." Kieran said, referring to General Data Protection Regulation, a law pertaining to data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area and the California Consumer Privacy Act, which requires companies to tell Californians how their data is being used.
The new regulations provide potential challenges to Kieran's team.
"Under the GDPR, companies have 30 days to respond to a consumer's request for information. Under the CCPA, they have 45 days." Kieran told Cheddar. "When you're trying to build a service that can operate globally irrespective of where people live, those operational challenges become difficult. We try to standardize things as much as we can but it's a constantly evolving process."
From a user standpoint, Kieran says "one of the things we strive for is to try and give people the same controls around the world and the same transparency into how the service works around the world."
The security expert also says Twitter has made strides to be more transparent about security and privacy, referencing what he calls the "invisible work" that goes into ensuring data protection.
"We historically haven't spoken a lot about that work but we're starting to change that as we go into 2020. We recognize that there's a desire both among our consumers and our partners about how Twitter thinks about these things and deals with these things."
Kieran says there are three components to the internal or "invisible" work that consumers don't notice: dealing with technical debt, dealing with how to build new products and features, and the accountability of Twitter when people use its services
"Towards the end of 2019 we published a blog post to explain a lot more about why they were seeing these things. That it was actually part of an ongoing internal strategy. We've been working to fix technical debt and when we have uncovered things that we think people need to know about, we have communicated with them. We want them to know what we're doing to fix things," Kieran told Cheddar. "The goal of my team is to make sure that people around the world are constantly learning and they really understand what data we get and how we use it. We don't want there to be surprises."
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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