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HP Spying Incident Included Journalists
rufey writes "It is now being reported that the HP boardroom spying incident that occurred earlier this year also involved obtaining phone records of journalists from at least two news outlets. Journalists from CNET and the Wall Street Journal had their phone records obtained through a method called 'pretexting' to see who, if any, of the HP board members the journalists may have been in contact with."
Pretext is to lie as campaign contribution is to bribe.
Pissing off the media is a great way to hurt your PR. I can't imagine CNet having anything good to say about HP for a while.
The board of directors of a public company authorized this? I bet they all get barred by the SEC from serving anywhere. Watch and see, this is going to be a HUGE scandal.
. . . and call this practice what it really is, identity fraud.
It's just basic account privacy measures. Un-***ing-believable.
From HP's timed "expiration" of ink cartridges to this, it's become quite obvious that this organization has the same sort of ethical standards as Sony, Enron, etc... What's particularly sad is that they were, at least at one time, a real innovative and pioneering company. I studied some of their software engineering practices while pursuing a CS degree, and they were quite impressive. Nowadays, they're on my "Boycott and tell others why to avoid" list.
I mean, they're trying to stop damaging information from leaking into the wrong hands by phone tapping without asking for authority.
I heard this is all the rage in America at the moment!
This space for rent
So, anyone can get around the law simply by hiring people in the private sector?
Seriously though -- suits don't go to jail. It's so fantastically rare as to border on mythical. Not quite as rare as politicians going to jail, but still pretty rare. America is a nation where you are judged by what you have. A top executive has a great deal of wealth, and so the burden of proof for any criminal proceeding against him or her will be set so high that a successful prosecution is impossible. Meanwhile a 12 year old kid from the ghetto will get the needle based on hearsay and the fact that he once listened to a Marilyn Manson CD.
Oh, but wait, the post you replied to didn't say a thing about "trumps every power on earth". It said that confidentiality is a cornerstone of media. Which is why so many places have shield laws.
Pretending that somebody said something they didn't say is a sleazy trick, and in a written medium like this where anyone can look at what actually did get said you are certain to get caught in your dishonesty.
A thought just occured to me:
This kind of uproar over phone fraud is just the sort of thing needed to force general opinion - and political opinion - towards a re-assertment and re-assesment of privacy rights in the United States.
Just watching my newsfeeds, as every 20 seconds a new opinion article berating the utter stupidity and thickheadedness of Dunn is circulated, gives me hope.
Whereas govt. wiretapping on its own has (obviously) brought out much emotion and little reason from (the higher levels of) both sides, this behavoir of HP (and you can bet they are not the only company that will get mud in the face over this practice - Line up, fortune 500's) is likely to bring out the *best of America, for the best of purposes:
Issue Hot Potato+BlameGame=positive steps for privacy.
For example: A red state senator now has a pretext for not being stupid about phone tapping (some of you will no doubt cynically refute this, but I say watch and see how political rhetoric shifts between now and November - the Repubs need language to grasp for the middle)
*most erratic-mob-reactionary-unthought out-groupthinking-headless-behemoth to ever form on this planet.
Advertising is a poor, failing, ghost of an attempt at the power of honest word of mouth. -Locution Commando
SCO digs into PJ's personal life in an attempt to intimidate her coverage of their public actions. That's pretty damn well related.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I wonder what they got on me? I know they looked, but I don't know to what extent. Time to call the Attorney General and see if they can help. That said, I work for a UK company, so there are all sorts of European privacy laws that come into efffect.
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If they were looking into people laying into HP during that time, I am sure things like this got me in their sights.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=2
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=2
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=2
This is going to get mighty interesting, I am sure we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. It must be nice to know that all the board minutes are transcribed and kept. Anyone want to put money on Dunn eating some of her words in court?
-Charlie
Police can't hire private citizens to do those tasks that the laws prohibit law-enforcement from performing. If they do they become agents of the police and are subject to the same laws. This is longstanding in case law. If anything the question, for me, would be whether this makes those third parties agents of HP, and thus makes HP liable, and whether Patricia Dunn can be held criminally liable for their criminal acts.
Hell, Martha Stewart simply lied and went to jail. Patricia Dunn sanctioned these criminal acts. Even if her involvement was implicit she's still criminally liable because she knew they would not be able to gain access to this information without resorting to criminal activities.
She is a criminal now employed by the corporate foundations. Forever we'll remember HP as a criminal organization instead of the company that was founded for the employees.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
that's some pretty hysterical hyperbole (hyperbolic hysteria?) you got there there
first of all, the rich getting better treatment than the poor is not an american phenomenon, it's a human phenomenon. it's true in every country, in every time period. why are you singling the usa out for accountability for what every country is guilty of?
secondly, your attitude is all wrong. you have a tone of resignation to what you say. what you say IS true about the rich getting away with murder (literally, look at oj simpson) due to their greater resources. but that should piss you off, make you angry
if you're simply resigned to this as a fact of life, then you are complicit with the crime. that's what cynicism is: acceptance of what should not be acceptable. so don't get cynical and negative. that's common and lazy and useless. get angry and keep a positive attitude. then you make a difference. but if you're going to be cynical about it, you might as well say nothing at all if you have no intention of fighting injustice (which is what cynical resignation is: retiring from the fight)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Folks, there are hundreds of countries and thousands of foreign companies operating in the United States of America. Not all of them are as contrained by American laws as most American corps are. They conduct espionage with covert or overt state sponsorship.
With politics beign such a high stakes game and digging the dirt on the opponant and negative attack campaigns being so effective, are we really sure such tactics are not being used by the candidates? How many campaign managers say to their investigators "Do whatever it takes to find the dirt. Just make sure it cant be traced back to me." Neither the parties nor the candidates will explicitly authorize such operations, preserving the deniability. But tacit understanding is that, those underlings who took the risk and delivered the goods will move up in the good books of the parties.
It is almost certain underlings of parties (both Democrats and Republicans) do it. Foreign govts do it. Foreign corps do it. Private companies do it. So dont spend all your indignation on HP. Reserve some for future use.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact