In an era when Internet ad tracking and social media have heightened consumer awareness of digital privacy, Bloomberg L.P.'s disclosure that certain subscriber data were previously available to its journalists has risked alienating the much more sensitive, tightly regulated world of finance.
彭博(Bloomberg L.P.)最近披露说其记者过去可以访问某些用户数据。在一个互联网广告追踪和社交媒体令消费者网络隐私保护意识增强的时代,彭博的这一披露可能令更加敏感、监管严格的金融界同它疏远。
It has also raised the question of whether a business aimed at collecting and making sense of complex financial data can mix long term with a corporate culture built on transparency and sometimes ruthless efficiency.
此事也提出了这样一个问题:一个旨在收集和分析复杂金融数据的公司是否能够与一种构建在透明性、有时甚至无情效率之上的企业文化长期共存。
At least one big client, JPMorgan Chase & Co., is having 'serious dialogue' with Bloomberg and 'considering its options, ' said a person familiar with JPMorgan. Bloomberg has said it has been in contact with several hundred of its clients following last week's disclosure but it didn't comment specifically on JPMorgan
一位了解摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase &Co.)的人士说,至少有一个大客户──摩根大通──正在与彭博进行严肃对话,并考虑各项选择。彭博说,上周披露消息后,它一直在与数百个客户沟通,但没有具体就摩根大通置评。
Meanwhile, China's central bank, which oversees the world's largest hoard of foreign-exchange reserves, has started looking into potential data confidentiality issues involving Bloomberg, according to people with direct knowledge of the bank.
与此同时,据直接知情人士说,中国央行已经开始调查与彭博有关的潜在数据保密问题。中国央行管理着全球规模最大的外汇储备。
Privately held Bloomberg is facing scrutiny after disclosing last week that it has restricted its journalists from accessing information about terminal subscribers, including when the subscribers last logged on, when they first subscribed and how often they accessed features like news or the chat function. Starting in its early years and continuing until last month, the company made such functions available to reporters so they could participate in meetings with clients, Bloomberg has said.
私有公司彭博上周披露说,已对该公司记者访问终端用户信息的权限做了限制,如用户最后一次登陆时间、订阅日期以及使用新闻或聊天功能的频率等。目前该公司正面临审查。彭博说,从公司创立之初直至上个月,该公司的记者都可以使用这类功能,以便可以参加客户会议。
The disclosure was prompted by a complaint from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a big Wall Street client. But it has resulted in an outpouring of media attention and inquiries from government authorities ranging from the U.S. Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which are also Bloomberg clients, to the Bank of Japan.
彭博披露这一情况起因是它的一个华尔街大客户高盛集团(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)的一项投诉。但此事最终却引发了媒体的极大关注,从美联储(Federal Reserve)、美国联邦存款保险公司(Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)到日本央行等多个政府部门都提出了质询。美联储和美国联邦存款保险公司也是彭博的客户。
In a blog post Monday, Editor in Chief Matthew Winkler apologized for 'our error, ' writing that 'our reporters should not have access to any data considered proprietary.' Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff has also called the practice 'a mistake.'
彭博新闻主编温克勒(Matthew Winkler)周一在一篇博客中为“我们的错误”道歉,他写道“我们的记者不应该有权访问任何被认为是隐私的数据”。彭博首席执行长多克托罗夫(Daniel Doctoroff)也称这一做法是个“错误”。
The episode spotlights how much traders rely on Bloomberg as a source of information. The firm was officially started in 1982 with the goal of centralizing pricing data involving the opaque and chaotic bond market for Wall Street traders. Its emphasis on bringing hard-to-gather information to light was reflected in its corporate culture, which emphasized openness.
此事凸显出交易员多么依赖彭博作为一个信息来源。该公司1982年正式成立,目标是为华尔街交易员集中缺乏透明且混乱不堪的债市定价数据。该公司强调披露难以收集的信息,这可以从其强调开放的企业文化中反映出来。
From the company's start, founder Michael Bloomberg, now the mayor of New York City, went without a private office and sat among other employees. He stepped back from the day-to-day operations of his company more than a decade ago, but his approach, with its roots in Wall Street trading rooms, remains imprinted in the company's DNA.
从公司创立之初,创始人布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)就没有一间私人办公室,而是和其他员工坐在一起。10多年前,他退出公司的日常运营管理工作,但他植根于华尔街交易室的做法仍深深地烙印在公司的DNA中。布隆伯格现任纽约市长。
'He took that trading-room culture and ethos and brought it to Bloomberg, ' said Michael Driscoll, a longtime Wall Street trader and Bloomberg user who now teaches finance at Adelphi University.
彭博终端机用户、华尔街资深交易员德里斯科尔(Michael Driscoll)说,布隆伯格将交易室的文化和风气带到了彭博。德里斯科尔现在艾德菲大学(Adelphi University)教金融学。
The approach extended to the news operation, which was launched in the late 1980s. Every Bloomberg reporter has a terminal or access to its data platform. Staff calendars and interview notes are typically made available to other reporters -- so that people can see who is meeting with whom on business trips and what some reporters have been working on. When employees enter a Bloomberg building anywhere in the world a notification appears next to their profile, which can be viewed on other employees' terminals.
这种风气也渗透到彭博新闻社。彭博在上世纪80年代推出新闻服务。彭博社的每位记者都有一台终端机或能访问其数据平台。这样同事之间可以了解某人在出差时见了谁,某些记者正在忙些什么。当彭博员工进入彭博在全球的任何一家分支机构时,其个人资料旁会出现一条通知。其它员工的终端机上可以看到这条通知。
But while a culture of openness can encourage collaboration in a newsroom, it can also clash with the business of selling services to Wall Street. Aside from the terminals, which cost about $1, 800 a month, Bloomberg charges investors to store emails after the first six months. Financial firms pay Bloomberg 'a pluperfect fortune to store their old emails, ' said Hugh Culverhouse, as investor and former U.S. prosecutor.
虽然开放的文化可以鼓励新闻编辑部员工间相互合作,但这也会与向华尔街销售信息服务的业务发生冲突。除了月使用费约为1,800美元的彭博终端机,如果投资者希望保存六个月以上的邮件,彭博还会向其收取邮件存储费。曾为美国检察官的投资者卡尔弗豪斯(Hugh Culverhouse)说,金融机构向彭博支付了一大笔费用以保存旧邮件。
There is an understanding that the Bloomberg domain, in which users send instant messages and emails among themselves, is a kind of gated community and one pays a high price to exchange ideas and sensitive financial data. 'The Bloomberg platform is used by people who make large financial decisions, and those decisions are felt to be confidential, ' said Larry Tabb, founder of the research firm Tabb Group.
有一种理解认为,彭博的平台类似一种有警卫值守的社区,用户支付高昂代价在此交流想法和敏感的金融数据。在彭博平台上,用户之间可以发送即时信息和电子邮件。研究机构Tabb Group的创始人塔布(Larry Tabb)说,彭博平台的用户都是那些要做出重大金融决策的人,这些决策被认为是机密的。
Mr. Driscoll said painful memories of the financial crisis and regulatory probes into banks have created a sense of 'borderline paranoia' on Wall Street that makes the industry extra sensitive to issues of data security.
德里斯科尔说,有关金融危机和监管机构对各家银行的调查令华尔街产生了“边缘性妄想症”(borderline paranoia),这令金融业对数据安全问题格外敏感。
Any evidence that Bloomberg misused proprietary client information would risk undermining its role as a premier source of financial data. Still, despite the concerns expressed by big banks and government agencies, it remains unclear whether the recent scrutiny will endanger Bloomberg's terminal sales because of perceptions about the product's competitive strength.
如有任何证据表明彭博滥用客户专有信息,那么其作为金融数据主要来源的地位可能会被削弱。然而,尽管大银行和政府机构对这一问题表示关切,但目前仍不清楚最近这起事件是否会危及彭博终端机的销售,因为客户还是认可彭博终端机的竞争实力。
'It's the only game in town, ' Mr. Driscoll said.
德里斯科尔说,这几乎就是你唯一所能用到的终端机了。
The incident also highlights the challenge for Bloomberg, as a services business catering to the financial sector, in also running a news operation. Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, said that the digital age has resulted in companies gaining more data about their consumers, raising such questions as 'What are you doing with the information you acquired about me?' He said that 'trust' is the ultimate product for news organizations.'If you are being transparent about who you are, you have to be transparent to readers about what you're doing with their information.'
该事件也凸显彭博面临的挑战。作为一家服务金融机构的信息服务企业,彭博同时还经营新闻业。美国报业研究所(American Press Institute)执行董事罗森斯蒂尔(Tom Rosenstiel)说,数字化时代令很多企业获得了有关其客户的很多数据,这也提出了很多问题,比如企业到底如何使用其搜集的客户信息。他说“信任”是新闻机构的最终产品。如果你对“自己是谁”这一问题非常透明,那么你也该向读者阐明你是如何使用读者信息的。
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