Officials at the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and some of America's largest financial firms are assessing whether their use of Bloomberg News' ubiquitous financial data terminals has exposed them to a potential privacy breach.
Bloomberg News, the worldwide news organization founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, acknowledged late last week that its reporters used the company's terminals to access personal information about subscribers, including Wall Street traders and other financial figures.
The New York-based company said the practice — which appears to have been routine for more than two decades — was used to retrieve mundane facts such as log-in and contact information of its data-services clients. The company said its reporters did not have access to sensitive private information held by clients, such as financial trades or takeover targets.