Wal-Mart Fires Worker Over Eavesdropping

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070306/D8NMEILG0.html

Wal-Mart Fires Worker Over Eavesdropping
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Mar 5, 11:07 PM (ET)

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) said Monday it fired a systems technician who allegedly recorded phone conversations between the company's public relations office and a newspaper reporter. The case is now being investigated by federal authorities.

Wal-Mart said the technician, whom it did not identify, also intercepted text messages using his own personal equipment. The retailer said he was acting alone, but declined to say what his motive may have been.

Wal-Mart said its internal investigation began on Jan. 11 after an unidentified party alerted the company. That led to the discovery that the technician had monitored and recorded phone conversations between Wal-Mart's public relations staffers and a New York Times reporter between September 2006 and January 2007. Wal-Mart said it notified The New York Times earlier Monday.

A New York Times spokeswoman, Diane McNulty, identified the reporter as retail writer Michael Barbaro. She said the newspaper does not plan "to take any legal action at this time."

FULL story at link.

[northzax]

1. seems reasonable

and I would suspect this guy will be getting a visit from the FCC as well, they frown on this sort of stuff.

[Bluzmann57]

2. Why was the person listening in anyway?

I think that is a legitimate question. Eavesdropping is unethical at best, and possibly illegal. Here we are wringing our hands over the government listening in on our conversations, and then a person gets fired for basically doing the same thing. As much as I despise Wal Mart, I think I have to agree with them on this one.

[Kolesar]

3. Privacy violations are only illegal is you get caught

Cops and corporations get away with illegally obtaining data *all the time*.

[KansDem]

4. Isn't that the lesson we'll be taking away from this whole Bush Jr. experience?

...only illegal is you get caught

I mean, how...how do I explain this to my 9-year-old son?* :cry:

*in reference to statements made by teary-eyed Repubs in Congress about Clinton's indiscretions...

[Kolesar]

6. & the gops made such a big deal about Clinton's "moral relativism"

I think the intellectual dishonesty of the ruling republicans and their insouciant media helpers has finally collapsed. Like the song by Stiv Bators: "Open your eyes and see the lies right in front of you".

[mattvermont]

5. corporate sanctioned eavesdropping??

It sounds to me that this is just business as usual for a
company wanting to control
its public image...that technician was doing his/her
job..until they got caught.
JMO

[merwin]

7. I worked at a cell phone company in engineering for around 7 years, and

it's pretty much IMPOSSIBLE (unless you have someone inside the phone company) to intercept text messages, which are encrypted. I assume since he was supposedly monitoring the text messages that the phone calls he was monitoring came from a cell phone as well.

I want to hear the systems technician's side of the story