BUSTED: Bloomberg News Caught Spying On Goldman Sachs Through Bloomberg Terminals
Specifically, Goldman officials learned that Bloomberg staffers could determine not only which of its employees had logged into Bloomberg’s proprietary terminals but also how many times they had used particular functions, sources told The Post.
Form The Post:
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.
Wall Street firms pay about $20,000 a year to rent each terminal, which provides reams of real-time data about everything from financial transactions to sports to hard news.
Tracy Alloway of The Financial Times has a bit more detail on the functions of the terminal used for snooping.
A Bloomberg spokesman said that it immediately "decided to disable journalist access to this customer relationship information for all clients."
Any company that provides an internet service like Bloomberg is going to have reams of data on the activities of clients. But letting journalists (or anyone else) have access to that for their work is a great way to freak out your clients, and make them skeptical about handing over so much money every year. We can only imagine that the bosses on the terminal side of the business are furious at the use of this data by journalists.