Re: [TSCM-L] Wal-Mart says employee spied on reporter

You just have to love the way that one the one hand they are
indignant that one of their own low level employees did some illegal
eavesdropping and that the company is a victim here, but the
eavesdropping the company was engaged in was legal you see.

What is wrong with this picture, and why did the tech have pager
intercept software in the first place for use at work.

-jma




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17469749/

Wal-Mart says employee spied on reporter
Fired worker intercepted calls, messages between PR staffer, journalist
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC

Retail giant Wal-Mart said federal authorities are investigating a
potential electronic spying incident involving one of its employees
and a reporter for the New York Times.

Wal-Mart announced Monday that an internal investigation begun in
January revealed that a technician had intercepted telephone
conversations and text messages between a New York Times reporter and
public relations employees over a four-month period last year. That
investigation also revealed that the employee had intercepted text
messages and pages involving other individuals outside the company, it said.

The story conjured up last year's Hewlett Packard scandal, during
which the company admitted hiring outside firms to spy on
journalists. Wal-Mart officials, however, insisted the employee
engaged in these electronic interceptions acted alone.

The employee was fired, Wal-Mart said, and the U.S. Attorney's Office
has opened an investigation. The employee's direct supervisor also
was fired, and another supervisor was disciplined, said Mona
Williams, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart.
All three employees worked in the firm's information systems division
at the company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

It was not clear what motivated the employee to intercept
communications from a journalist. Williams refused to comment on
that, saying release of those details could compromise the ongoing
federal investigation. She did say public relations employees were
unaware their conversations were being recorded by the employee.

Williams said the technician used company equipment to automatically
record phone calls placed from the reporter's telephone number to the
company. The technician also used personal equipment to pluck pager
text messages out of the air within a range of a mile or so of the
firm's headquarters, she said.

"(The technician) captured text message within range but preserved
(only) those with (certain) keywords," Williams said. "Some had
keywords that he was watching for."

Technology to intercept text pages is not commonly available at
retail stores. Williams would not explain what tools to technician
used to pluck the page messages out of the airwaves, other than to
say "radio" technology was involved. She also refused to say what
keywords the technician was looking for.  She said "a handful" of
other individuals' messages were also snagged by the technician, but
"none of them were reporters or public figures."

The reporter involved in the incident is Michael Barbaro, who
frequently writes about Wal-Mart, said Diane McNulty, a spokeswoman
for the Times.

"We are troubled by what appears to be inappropriate taping of our
reporter's conversations. At this point, we don't know many of the
key facts, such as what the purpose of this taping was and the
extent, if any, to which the action was authorized," McNulty said,
reading from a statement.

Chris Kofinis, a vocal critic of the retail giant who helps run the
organization WakeUpWalMart.com, said he was concerned his
organization's privacy also had been violated, because it has
frequently communicated with Barbaro, the Times reporter. Kofinis
said Wake Up Wal-Mart obtained several confidential internal Wal-Mart
memos and provided them in August to Barbaro, who last October wrote
a story about one of the memos citing Wake Up Wal-Mart as the source.

Wal-Mart said its employee's spying efforts began in September.

"It's deeply disturbing," Kofinis said. "We're not sure as to whether
our own privacy has been compromised. Wal-Mart has a lot to answer
for, and they are not answering right now."

Wal-Mart said it believed no laws had been broken in the incident,
because it's legal in Arkansas for telephone conversations to be
recorded as long as one of the parties involved is aware of the
recording. Company policy allows phone calls to be recorded, but only
with permission from Wal-Mart's legal department, it said.

"These recordings were not authorized by the company and were in
direct violation of the established operational policy that forbids
such activity without prior written approval from the legal
department," Wal-Mart said in its statement.  "No such approval was
ever sought and, had such approval been sought, it would have been denied."

The federal investigation was first revealed by NBC News' Pete
Williams earlier Monday.

Wal-Mart said it had beefed up procedures to prevent unauthorized
interceptions in the future, including physically removing recording
equipment from technicians' computers.




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