Dunn With It

I don't care how many CYA deniability memos your underlings write, assuring you that the means of uncovering your board members' home telephone numbers were "time tested and industry standard." There's a little concept in the law known as the "known or ought to have known" standard (emphasis mine). A college graduate (HP Chairman Dunn and CEO Hurd included) knows enough civics and US History to understand that a government agency may legally subpoena telephone records, but that a corporation may not. Phone calls made from the office are one thing--it's your office, and your phone, and you paid for both, and if you want to be a jerk and comb those records, you can. If you're sitting there in the corner office looking at a list of someone's phone calls made from their home you knew, or ought to know, they were obtained illegally. And if you didn't want to know, do you want to advertise that fact? Does it qualify you to lead a major American corporation?

Besides which "it's legal" is a crappy standard for behavior compared to "is it ethical?" My good friend, the late Edwin Diamond, who taught me journalism, had this simple rule: "If you have to ask, it isn't ethical." Too bad no one ever told Dunn or Hurd that. And now they've gone and ruined a great American corporation's reputation.