RIM Tells India That It Simply Cannot Snoop On Blackberry Email

Deutsche Telekom Pulls An HP: Accused Of Spying On Journalists And Board Members

from the HP-redux dept

Tue, May 27th 2008 11:52am — Mike Masnick

Remember the infamous HP "pretexting" situation that involved HP's chair spying on board members and reporters? It probably shouldn't come as a surprise, but it looks like HP was hardly alone in that sort of enterprise. A few readers have sent in the story coming out of Germany that Deutsche Telekom may have been involved in a very similar operation, spying on board members and journalists trying to find the source of "leaks" to the press. In some ways, it sounds like Deutsche Telekom's efforts may have gone even further than HP's efforts -- though, they seem to have taken place roughly around the same time. Still, it appears that Deutsche's spying activities may have gone on even after the HP story was revealed, so the folks involved must have realized what would happen if the news ever got out.

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Filed Under: board members, germany, journalists, spying
Companies: deutsche telekom

3 Comments

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chris (profile), 27 May 2008 @ 1:02pm

hubris at its finest
we know what happens when a company does this. they know what happens. we know that they know.

the reasoning for doing something that you know is wrong is that you won't make a mistake and get caught like everyone else. everyone tells themselves that right up until they get caught.

people get caught lying, cheating, and stealing every day, yet it continues because we all think that it won't happen to us. the fact that companies and individuals get caught everyday is proof that happens to everyone, ourselves included.
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Matt, 27 May 2008 @ 1:09pm

umm, no?
I don't think people are that full of hubris. I think they get told from their management and their mgmt's mgmt and such that everything is fine and dandy and so on down the chain. I don't think people come to that conclusion on their own. At the top level legal and high up CEO-level folks probably have signed some sort of agreement to indemnify themselves from any form of negligence related to this, that of which document can easily be "lost" if needed, and easily produced if required by law.

Not a new scenario, just another way of showing that they intended to skirt the law to begin with but will never acknowledge it of course.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 May 2008 @ 5:09pm

Will anyone go to jail this time ?
Probably not ....
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