Privacy Digest

Journalists Intend to Sue Hewlett-Packard Over Surveillance - New York Times: "In an unusual step for the news media, three journalists whose private phone records were scrutinized by investigators working for Hewlett-Packard intend to sue the company for invasion of privacy.

The dispute stems from an investigation of Hewlett-Packard's directors initiated under the company's former chairwoman, Patricia C. Dunn. To try to uncover leaks from board members, private investigators examined the phone records of nine journalists who covered the company, as well as the records of some of their relatives.

While the dispute revolves around the issue of how the journalists' careers may have been damaged by having their phone records examined, the threat to sue also raises the question whether it is proper for a news organization or its reporters to sue a company they cover. It is certainly not common.

'We are preparing to file a lawsuit,' said Kevin R. Boyle, a lawyer in the Los Angeles firm of Panish, Shea & Boyle, which was hired by three reporters for CNet Networks, an online technology news service, Dawn Kawamoto, Stephen Shank-land and Tom Krazit.

CNet does not plan to join their lawsuit, but said that it might sue separately.

Mr. Boyle said the suit would not ask for a dollar amount of damages but would seek punitive damages against Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest computer company, which admitted acquiring the records through subterfuge, a practice called pretexting. Mr. Boyle said that while his clients are still employed by CNet, they are no longer allowed to cover Hewlett-Packard.

The threat to sue comes after several months of negotiations with the company. In December, Bill Lockyer, then California's attorney general, met with a majority of the nine journalists in an attempt to get settlement talks started; the journalists' lawyers were at the meeting, as were lawyers for some of the news organizations they represented.

The original plan was to seek an amount equal to about $250,000 for each journalist to be donated to an agreed-upon cause, like a journalism school program, Mr. Lockyer had said at the time.

Over the next several months, a group of seven journalists, whose phone records or whose families' records had been examined, debated whether to proceed and what the implications would be for their profession. The three CNet reporters split off from the group and sought separate representation.

The other four reporters -- three from BusinessWeek and one from The New York Times -- continue to pursue settlement discussions as a group, together with The New York Times Company.

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(Read Original Article - Via New York Times.)