Bloomberg News caught spying on bankers through terminals

Goldman Sachs recently confronted Bloomberg LP over concerns about reporters watching bankers' activity

Published May 10, 2013 5:39PM (EDT)

  (Wikimedia/jm3)
(Wikimedia/jm3)

The ubiquitous Bloomberg terminals used by every Wall Street trader may have also been used by Bloomberg News reporters as a lens through which to monitor bankers' activity. According to the New York Post Friday:

The ability to snoop on Bloomberg terminal users came to light recently when Goldman officials learned that at least one reporter at the news service had access to a wide array of information about customer usage, sources said.

In one instance, a Bloomberg reporter asked a Goldman executive if a partner at the bank had recently left the firm — noting casually that he hadn’t logged into his Bloomberg terminal in some time, sources added.

Goldman later learned that Bloomberg staffers could determine not only which of its employees had logged into Bloomberg’s proprietary terminals but how many times they had used particular functions, insiders said.

... “In light of [Goldman’s] concern as well as a general heightened sensitivity to data access, we decided to disable journalist access to this customer relationship information for all clients,” he noted.


By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

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Bloomberg News Bloomberg Terminal Goldman Sachs Surveillance Wall Street