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Who is the former head of the NSA on the board of Amazon

4 years ago babelfish

Who is the former head of the NSA on the board of Amazon

The former head of the NSA Keith Alexander joins the board of Amazon. Alexander was running the agency when Edward Snowden revealed documents attesting to the pervasiveness of surveillance programs in 2013

The former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), General Keith Alexander, joins the Amazon board of directors. Alexander became known after Snowden leaked in 2013 about the US surveillance program.

The entry into the Amazon board was revealed by the company itself in a documentation presented to the SEC, Consob USA. As highlighted by The Verge , Alexander has also already been added to the official website of the company's board of directors.

However, the duties of the former NSA chief on Amazon's review committee are nowhere spelled out.

Alexander's role with the company reflects Amazon's growing ties to Washington, CNN said .

Alexander joins the Amazon board less than a week after the Defense Department decided – after a review – to award Microsoft the $ 10 billion Jedi cloud computing contract amid protests from Jeff Bezos' giant.

WHO IS ALEXANDER KEITH

Alexander, a retired four-star U.S. Army general, served as director of the NSA agency from 2005 until his retirement in 2014.

From May 2010 to March 2014 he also served as commander of the United States Cyber ​​Command.

After his retirement, he entered cybersecurity and became president and co-CEO of IronNet Cybersecurity.

THE SNOWDEN CASE

As we said, Alexander was the public face of the scandal sparked by Edward Snowden over the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance programs . He retired from public service in 2013.

THE PRISM PROGRAM

Alexander thus represents a controversial figure for many in the tech community due to his involvement in the surveillance systems revealed by Snowden. These programs included Prism, a large data collection program across the systems of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook, but not Amazon.

AMAZON KEPT OUT

In fact, Amazon has always claimed that it "never participated" in the NSA's Prism program which allowed the government to obtain data from US big techs.

However, Jeff Bezos' tech giant hasn't been immune to criticism of how and what data it collects.

AMAZON'S “SURVEILLANCE” PROBLEMS

As TechCrunch pointed out, "Amazon has also faced allegations of monitoring and profiling its users via the network of Alexa- based devices (and Internet infrastructure, shopping habits and emotion tracking smartwatches)."

In June, Amazon also announced that it will ban police use of its controversial facial recognition technology , Rekognition, for one year . Amazon's one-year moratorium comes after IBM announced its withdrawal from the facial recognition business.

The stances have come as tech companies face greater scrutiny over their contracts with the police.

WHAT WILL IT DO IN AMAZON

Alexander's position on the board will therefore provide Amazon with new skills in defense procurement, an area of ​​particular focus for the company in recent years.

Amazon was one of the favorites to win the Jedi cloud computing contract with the Pentagon, but ultimately lost to Microsoft. The company is currently in a lawsuit against the federal government in connection with the contract, arguing that President Donald Trump's personal statements against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos influenced the race.

Last week, the Department of Defense reiterated its decision to entrust the contract to Microsoft, prompting Amazon to continue its action in the United States Federal Court of Complaints.

SNOWDEN'S COMMENT

The reactions to the recent appointment were immediate. "Turns out 'Hey Alexa' is short for 'Hey Keith Alexander,'" Edward Snowden tweeted after the news.
"Yes, Keith Alexander personally responsible for the illegal mass surveillance programs that have caused a global scandal," he added.

THE FEARS OF PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL

But Snowden isn't the only one who has concerns about Alexander's role at Amazon. Edin Omanovic, director of the NGO Privacy International , also told the BBC that Amazon's decision to hire General Alexander is "deeply troubling".

“Every day, big tech companies like Amazon make huge ethical decisions that affect people's lives without any democratic accountability,” Omanovic said. “It is worrying that at the center of it all is someone who has spent years defending the theft of secret data that has turned out to be illegal. We don't need another NSA, not even one with a privacy policy ”.

Omanovic suggested the move could make it easier for Amazon to exert its influence in the security market.

"Amazon now wants to enter the lucrative defense and security market in order to access government data repositories," concluded the director of Privacy International.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/chi-e-lex-capo-della-nsa-nel-board-di-amazon/ on Fri, 11 Sep 2020 11:59:48 +0000.