TERMINAL SPYING BEGAN ON MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG'S WATCH
It is like something out of a sci-fi/horror film. A huge corporation gets over 300,000 computer terminals into the offices of the most powerful people in the worlds of finance, politics, media, and even the Vatican. Then this huge corporation uses those terminals to snoop on its unsuspecting subscribers. And now we know that this nightmare began during the watch of Michael Bloomberg, who is now the mayor of New York.
Monday morning, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler confessed to almost everything in an editorial. Yes, Winkler admits, Bloomberg News reporters have been snooping into the activities of Bloomberg Terminal subscribers. And yes, the snooping included contact information, log-in information, and what their clients searched for (in other words: what they were interested in). Other outlets have reported that the snooping included chats between subscribers and customer service representatives.
Winkler also admits that this indefensible behavior was used by Bloomberg News reporters to hunt for scoops. For example, if an executive at a top financial firm hadn't logged on in a while that might tell a reporter that this individual is no longer employed, sick, or sleeping at his desk. Apparently, Bloomberg News used this secret information to break the news about a recent trading loss that cost Goldman Sachs billions.
But another key point Winkler makes is this…
It is like something out of a sci-fi/horror film. A huge corporation gets over 300,000 computer terminals into the offices of the most powerful people in the worlds of finance, politics, media, and even the Vatican. Then this huge corporation uses those terminals to snoop on its unsuspecting subscribers. And now we know that this nightmare began during the watch of Michael Bloomberg, who is now the mayor of New York.
Monday morning, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler confessed to almost everything in an editorial. Yes, Winkler admits, Bloomberg News reporters have been snooping into the activities of Bloomberg Terminal subscribers. And yes, the snooping included contact information, log-in information, and what their clients searched for (in other words: what they were interested in). Other outlets have reported that the snooping included chats between subscribers and customer service representatives.
Winkler also admits that this indefensible behavior was used by Bloomberg News reporters to hunt for scoops. For example, if an executive at a top financial firm hadn't logged on in a while that might tell a reporter that this individual is no longer employed, sick, or sleeping at his desk. Apparently, Bloomberg News used this secret information to break the news about a recent trading loss that cost Goldman Sachs billions.
But another key point Winkler makes is this…
Why did reporters have access to this in the first place? The recent complaints go to practices that are almost as old as Bloomberg News. Since the 1990s, some reporters have used the terminal to obtain, as the Washington Post reported, “mundane” facts such as log-on information.
