Snooping is part of the Bloomberg culture

John Carney of CNBC.com talks to former Bloomberg News journalists about the culture of the company.

Carney writes, “‘The surveillance culture is really comprehensive there. There are 450 cameras in the building, You badge in and out. The time at which you badge in and out is displayed for anyone who looks you up internally,’ one former reporter said.

“According to that former reporter, guards would sometimes patrol the headquarters and ask men to adjust neckties that had flopped over security badges.

“Years of becoming habituated to being able to both snoop on fellow employees and being snooped upon may have made the use of proprietary customer data for reporting seem perfectly acceptable.

“‘They’ve been doing this to each other for so long that they think its normal,’ said a different former employee.

“This attitude was certainly detectable in a conversation I had with one current employee.

“‘This is blown way out of proportion by people who just don’t understand that nothing you do at work is truly private,’ the person said.”

Read more here.