CNET Reporters Intend to Sue HP Over Surveillance 40
theodp writes "The NY Times reports that three CNET journalists whose records, as well as those of their relatives, were scrutinized by pretexting investigators working for HP intend to sue the company for invasion of privacy. HP, who paid $14.5M to settle a lawsuit filed by the CA attorney general in connection with the spying, reportedly offered each reporter $10,000, roughly enough to cover legal bills. The CNET reporters have been banned from covering HP or its see-no-evil CEO, who BTW was rewarded with $20.33M in 2006 despite skipping his reading assignments."
HP's Actions Where Shameful (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:HP's Actions Where Shameful (Score:5, Informative)
DONT CALL IT PRETEXTING! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: similar to euphemism (Score:1)
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There are many reasons it is a good thing to be able to differentiate like this. Ask a moral philosopher - the subject of lying is a tricky one. Or pe
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But when I can't say to their faces that yeah, I called up these journalists and said I was you to see if you were the leak, that's when it becomes fraudulent. When I have to make up a new word for it so it sounds better, i
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Inspiring.
Dear shareholders, (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you for your careful consideration.
Cripes! (Score:5, Insightful)
Fraud.
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Re:Cripes! (Score:5, Insightful)
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One could argue that I could just explain what "pretexting" means, of course, but such an explanation would likely involve the word "fraud", anyway, so there'd be no use in not calling
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Yes, it is. There is so much fraud and deceit coming out of corporations and politicians these days that the English speaking public is scrambling for new words to accurately differentiate it so that it isn't one big opaque mass of lies.
The complaint is that "pretexting" doesn't have negative connotations yet. I suspect because the word is still too new. If people want to change that, they need to pepper the internet/media with clearly derogatory uses
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$10,000?!?!? (Score:4, Insightful)
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From the article:
The threat to sue comes after several months of negotiations with the company. In December, Bill Lockyer, then California's attorney general, met with a majority of the nine journalists in an attempt to get settlement talks started; the journalists' lawyers were at the meeting, as were lawyers for some of the news organizations they represented.
The original plan was to seek an amount equal to about $250,000 for each journalist to be donated to an agreed-upon cause, like a journalism school program, Mr. Lockyer had said at the time.
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In an April meeting with H.P.'s outside law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius of Philadelphia, the seven journalists requested an amount equal to several million dollars each, paid to them directly with their promise that most of the money, though not all, would be donated to charity. Hewlett-Packard's offer was closer to $10,000 per reporter, roughly enough to cover the reporters' legal bills, according to several people involved in the talks.
I think the reporters are probably looking to cash in while they can. The CA attorney general seemed to have the right idea and most of the reporters bought into it. This group is apparently out for something more, whether it's the money or just to continue shaming HP, it's hard to say. I think both sides are pretty much missing the point: HP can't believe that simply throwing a paltry sum at someone will get them to go away, and the reporters shouldn't get it in their head that it's the
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I disagree. I think they're fairly expecting to be compensated for the embarrassment and offense and dirtiness they must feel for being treated like criminals for just doing their jobs. And I'd certainly expect to be handsomely compensated by a huge corporation that can certainly afford to pay the money when that corporation decided it could just ignore the law and violate my privacy.
Am I a greedy bitch? No, I don't think so. I think tha
But HP have been spying for years (Score:5, Interesting)
So the product manager of HP Australia not only doesn't know if it's been implemented yet, but he also is referring to something laying dormant for 10 years in their systems. Backweb software can potentially phone home and provide any and every detail about a customer. It's TSR, it's in memory ALL THE TIME, and hidden as a service.
It is so untrustworthy, HP themselves have renamed it in the add/remove programs as "Updates from HP" instead of backweb because customers thought it was spyware.
This latest development doesn't surprise me at all.
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old rome.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Ah, for the days of rome, when the oligarchist would also be given 10 more personal legions....
Feels strange (Score:4, Interesting)
Feels strange journalists suing for invasion of privacy - let's see: one bunch of people who invade people's privacy for money suing another bunch of people who invaded that first bunch of people's privacy for money for money.
(disclaimer: I used to work for hp back in the last century, although they never really asked me to be on the board or anything)
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[*] As a fraction of total fraudsters of all professions.
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Has it never occurred to you that independent, courageous journalists might be a necessity for a functioning democracy? (Not that I'm sure the USA have either, of course...)
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OK, maybe not.
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I'm sure if you put a little effort in to it you could recognize the difference between reporting on the activities of the board of directors of a publicly traded company vs. calling a business claiming to be someone you are not for the purpose of extracting information you are not legally entitled to possess from that business.
Hint: one of t
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RICO charges? (Score:1, Insightful)
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It may be. Of course, you'd have to get the US Attorney General to agree and to act on it, and if you haven't noticed, he's kind of busy right now trying to keep himself out of jail.
realtor (Score:1)