HP SCANDaL?

Question

can someone please breifly tell me a summary about what is going on about the HP scandal.. does it affect the 4th admendment..right to privacy..and no search w/o warrant?.or any other laws/admendment

Answer 1

To investigate and stop leaks of its business secrets to the press, HP hired investigators who engaged in some questionable, perhaps illegal conduct, such as wiretapping. However, this does not implicate the 4th Amendment, because HP is not the government; while the government has authority to conduct wiretaps, etc., under conditions mandated by law (usually requiring a judge's consent), private parties in most places generally have no such authority and commit a crime in the act. Remember that the Bill of Rights establishes limits on the government, not on anyone else.

Answer 2

There is a big issue in this case about people misrepresenting themselves in order to gain information.Also about people accepting that information knowing how it was obtained.
I don't know about the 4th amendment in the United States, but in Canada and other some western countries there is a real powerful trend towards strict privacy laws with court challenges to enforce them.
So with the current trendiness of legislation it could be a violation of some newer laws regarding privacy in your country.
Furthermore it is not ethical to misrepresent or disguise your identity when dealing with other law abiding citizens, and I would also guess it would be illegal if there was some kind of loss involved because of it.Certainly a lawsuit.
Also there is an issue of responsibility, the executive officer of HP a major company in the fabric of Western business was party to actions that were beyond the norm and unethical, even though she claims she thought they were legal.It's ridiculous to have a person with that much responsibility towards employees, stockholders, customers and the economy behave in such a stupid uninformed fashion.