Interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal, dealing with spies, critics, and Deutsche Bank (subscription required). In what seems to me as a rather over-the-top move, Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) used spies to keep tabs on its critics -- and the scope of the operation may be a bit more expansive than originally believed. In May, Deutsche Bank found efforts involving "questionable investigative or surveillance activities" that its security department and outside contractors conducted. The "monitoring" took place four separate times from 2001 to 2007, with the bank using a detective (and "others" according to the article) to basically spy on people affiliated with the bank.
The detective told the Journal that he received a list of names in 2006, a list of people that the security department wanted the detective to watch. The bank contends that the spy mission was conducted by its security department and made no mention of its legal department. This cloak-and-dagger game cost two executives their jobs last month, and could lead to more.
I am not as interested in what this little issue could do to Deutsche Bank as what it could mean to the business world. Imagine if corporations decided to follow Deutsche Bank's lead and "monitor" some of its critics. I have been an outspoken critic of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and its CEO Howard Schultz for some time, could they be spying on me? If Starbucks were doing so, they wouldn't learn much -- but there are implications on a grander scale. Reportedly, some of the people Deutsche Bank monitored were shareholders -- outspoken shareholders. What if companies follow suit and spy on their critical shareholders? It sure seems that some executives at Deutsche Bank had some thin skin -- take the criticism and let it go. There is no need to monitor the people giving the criticism; what is the end result going to be? Were the members of the security department going to call a press conference and say, "Look, this person does not tip 10% -- they are evil and should never criticize our company. They should never be believed."
Frankly, this is patently ridiculous and it amazes me that a company would take a situation as far as violating the rights of some of its shareholders. Odd story, and I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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