Bloomberg reporters had ability to spy on its customers

Yet another lesson on the perils of the digital age. Bloomberg, the company that makes those ubiqutious data terminals on Wall Street, has been accused of surrpetitiously snooping on its clients.

Apparently there’s a function in the Bloomberg software that lets Bloomberg staffers see what their customers are using them for.

Including, says the business website Quartz, what Alan Greenspan was looking for when he hit the “help” key. The whole thing came to light because a reporter for Bloomberg News said to a guy at Goldman Sachs, ‘Hey, have you left the firm? You haven’t logged in for while.”

Bloomberg says its journalists can’t use the snoop function anymore.