Bloomberg CEO: Journalist access to data was a mistake

The following email that was sent to all Bloomberg LP employees globally by Daniel L. Doctoroff, CEO and president:

Since our founding more than 30 years ago, the proper safeguarding of customer data has been a central tenet of Bloomberg’s culture.
A Bloomberg client recently raised a concern that Bloomberg News reporters had access to limited customer relationship management data through their use of the Bloomberg terminal. Although we have long made limited customer relationship data available to our journalists, we realize this was a mistake.
Having recognized this mistake, we took immediate action. Last month we changed our policy so that all reporters only have access to the same customer relationship data available to our clients. Additionally, we decided to further centralize our data security efforts by appointing Steve Ross, one of our most senior executives, to the new position of Client Data Compliance Officer. Steve is responsible for reviewing and, if necessary, enhancing protocols which among other things will continue to ensure that our news operations never have access to confidential customer data.
To be clear, the limited customer relationship data previously available to our reporters never included access to our trading, portfolio, monitor, blotter or other related systems or our clients’ messages. Moreover, reporters could not see news stories that clients read, or the securities they viewed. Bloomberg has very strict data security policies in place, in addition to significant and rigorous training, processes and protocols. Upon hiring, all Bloomberg employees enter into confidentiality provisions, including Bloomberg News.
Client trust is our highest priority and the cornerstone of our business, and we are deeply committed to ensuring the complete integrity and confidentiality of our clients’ data in all situations and at all times.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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Frank Kavoski says:
May 11, 2013 at 3:11 pm
This pathetic attempt to retrace steps is in direct contravention to the Bloomberg way. They love, and I mean love, to snoop. They snoop on their employees, who live in a paranoid hell bracketed by fear and intimidation. They adore collecting every nugget of known information. And, most importantly, despite assertions to the contrary, they are entirely, shamefully, devoid of real ethics. Witness how they embrace the abusive, mean-spirited behavior of the guy who runs their own news department, Winkler. So it's all well and fine for the CEO to come out and say, "err, sorry, we really didn't mean it" -- but it flies in the face of a company which has a pervasive culture of spying on people and collecting that data.