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Reporter's Story — How HP Kept Tabs On Me

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the in-case-you-were-wondering dept.

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "An outside lawyer working for H-P, John Schultz, yesterday told Wall Street Journal reporter Pui-Wing Tam how H-P's investigators collected information on her for a year, scoping out her trash and compiling a dossier on her phone calls. From Tam's article about her time spent, unwittingly, under surveillance: 'H-P's agents had my photo and reviewed videotaped footage of me, said Mr. Schultz, of the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. They conducted "surveillance" by looking for me at certain events to see if I would show up to meet an H-P director. (I didn't.) They also carried out "pre-trash inspections" at my suburban home early this year, Mr. Schultz said. ... But what was surprising were the questions Mr. Schultz left unanswered: How did H-P's agents get my phone numbers in the first place? When did they review videotaped footage of me? Did their gumshoes park their cars outside my house at night? And what the heck is pre-trash inspection?'"

5 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Stalking by cdn-programmer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does this qualify as stalking? Perhaps corporate stalking?

  2. incomplete disclosure by strspn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I read the article in the Journal this morning. What really pissed me off was the way that all the really uncomfortable details from powerpoint slides that HP had already turned over to Congress were excluded from the materials provided to Ms. Tam in person. For example, the fact that they not only pulled her phone records, but those of everyone she had been calling and taking calls from on her cellphone. This was while she was planning a sister's wedding.

  3. Only the beginning... by 10100111001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the power of corporations continues to grow unchecked, we could come upon a time when some corporations monitor their employees 24 hours a day, in there homes, at play, wherever, and to do anything outside of the company rules would mean termination. It would be in the company's best interest to do so.

    Sort of like how they can do drug testing now.

    --
    1 voice in a sea of voices
    1. Re:Only the beginning... by ZWithaPGGB · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This, along with all the other reasons trotted out daily in Dilbert, is why the large corporations can't invent anything. The best and brightest won't work for them. The "Search for Talent" was the cover sotry on last week's Economist. Too bad the corporate drones don't get that their risk averseness, in all things, is why they can't hire and retain the best and the brightest. Wait, I'm an entrepreneur, that means I get the smart ones that HP doesn't! Yippeeee!!!!

      Foosball, blimps, bring your dog to work, and LAN parties for the gamers aren't frivolity, they help productivity, in my experience. Costs a lot less than hiring private eyes to just keep your employees HAPPY!!!

  4. Hacking, anyone? by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Bryan Wagner of Littleton, Colo., allegedly used the last four digits of my Social Security number and my home phone number to set up an AT&T online account for my local phone service.
    How is this different from the "social engineering" that Kevin Mitnick did? He phoned people and used pretexting to gain access to computer systems. Interesting that when someone rich and powerful does it, it is called "pretexting", yet, when an ordinary person does it, it is called "hacking".
    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!