Business Ethics and Governance Issues at HP: The Pretexting Controversy

Though at that time, there was no law in California banning pretexting, the Attorney General of California used other laws governing identity theft, unlawfully spying on employees and directors, violating the right to privacy, permitting the use of social security numbers and confidential personal information to obtain information about the telephone calls, and deceptively obtaining information using pretexting, to lay charges against HP. According to Lockyer, "The Hewlett Packard incident has helped shine a national spotlight on a major privacy protection problem. With its governance reforms, this settlement should help guide companies across the country as they seek to protect confidential business information without violating corporate ethics or privacy rights."⁶

Its first product was an audio oscillator, an electronic instrument used to test sound equipment. One of HP's first customers was the Walt Disney Company, which used audio oscillators to develop the sound system for its movie Fantasia. During the 1940s, HP's products rapidly gained acceptance among engineers and scientists. HP's growth was aided by heavy purchases made by the US government during the Second World War. During the 1950s, HP developed strong technological capabilities in the rapidly evolving electronics business. In 1951, it invented the high-speed frequency counter, which significantly reduced the time required to measure high frequencies. It came out with its first public issue in 1957...