HP Looked for Spies; Panel Looks for Answers

Mark V. Hurd will have some explaining to do Thursday. That's when Hewlett-Packard Co.'s new chairman gets grilled by the House Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee about the company's elaborate probe into boardroom leaks, which involved spying on its directors and employees as well as on reporters covering the company.

Hurd became chairman of the venerable Silicon Valley computer maker Friday after the board of directors ousted Patricia C. Dunn as chairman because of the mounting furor over the probe's methods. The methods included obtaining personal telephone records under false pretenses and sending tracer software in an e-mail to a reporter.

Hurd, who has became HP's chief executive last year, apologized Friday to the journalists investigated and said the company still does not have all the facts about its probe. He called some of the findings so far "very disturbing."

Dunn approved and oversaw the investigation, but Hurd was heavily involved as well, according to documents and e-mails obtained by The Washington Post. One HP document named Hurd among the members of senior management to report back to on the "general strategy" of the leak investigation. That strategy included "implement[ing] any surveillance activity deemed appropriate" and "mak[ing] a decision on undercover operation."

Hurd said he was aware of the probes, but offered few details of his personal knowledge of the methods used. Those methods included a sting operation conducted against one reporter that attempted to employ tracking software in an e-mail attachment sent to her, hoping to identify anyone to whom she might forward the e-mail.

California's attorney general and the Securities and Exchange Commission are scrutinizing the probe to determine if its tactics were illegal. But the murkiness of the applicable laws highlights the challenge for Congress in trying to craft legislation that keep up with changing technology. There are no court precedents for some of the privacy issues raised.

The House has passed a measure that would criminalize the stealing and selling of phone records. The bill awaits a Senate floor vote.

HP is on record as a supporter of such measures. On Tuesday, HP wrote to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), urging him to bring the legislation to a vote.

"HP has long been an industry leader on privacy, pushing for comprehensive preemptive federal privacy legislation," wrote Gary Fazzino, HP vice president of government affairs. "HP believes responsible companies have an obligation to advance consumer and employee rights to have personal information safeguarded."