Snooping on your customers, the Bloomberg way

Tracy Alloway of the Financial Times, a former Bloomberg News staffer,writes about how reporters at the news service used the terminal to find out info about people on their beats.

Alloway writes, “What is more surprising is the fact that this has never come to light before. Ex-Bloomberg employees (this Alphaville contributor included) have been aware of the power of UUID for a long time. It’s only one of the, erm, ‘informational advantages’ that comes from working at Bloomberg. Another prominent one being the internal database reporters are required to contribute to on a regular basis. That database includes personal contact details of their sources – readily accessible to other Bloomberg employees – as well as personal details such as the names of their children, favourite foods and hobbies.

“Needless to say, there is an obvious conflict here. Bloomberg has built a semi-monopoly when it comes to financial terminals. Some of that success, it must be noted, comes from this kind of data-mining of users’ information

“UUID is a commercial function intended for sales people who can go to the client and say; ‘We see you like this function and are interested in this subject. Perhaps you would also enjoy these functions and features.’

“But the blurring of the commercial side with Bloomberg’s well-respected newswire, is a problem.”

Read more here.