O Surveillance vai demasiado distante

Sobre os anos, o Wal-Mart adquiriu uma multidão crescente dos críticos.

O behemoth de varejo é regularmente o alvo de billboards desfavoráveis, de anúncios de jornal e pelo menos de um documentary crítico.

Assim está surpreendendo mal que o Bentonville, arca., a companhia tentaria proteger-se dos escapes e dos rompimentos prejudiciais durante reuniões do accionista.

Como a companhia indica, fazer exame de tais etapas é somente prudent.

Deve-se anotar que os preços baixos do Wal-Mart entregam benefícios reais aos consumidores, especialmente famílias com rendas baixas. Aqueles preços baixos ajudam também tamp abaixo a taxa de inflação nacional.

But Wal-Mart went too far in its efforts to deal with critics. The work of the company’s Threat Research and Analysis Group, set up to counter problems such as leaked confidential memos, makes the company look downright paranoid.

Last month an employee was fired after phone calls from a New York Times reporter were intercepted along with pager messages. A subsequent Wall Street Journal story, quoting the fired worker and several Wal-Mart employees, shed light on the company’s extensive surveillance operations.

The Journal reported that those efforts involved infiltrating an anti-Wal-Mart group.

Other surveillance targets included company employees, activists, a consulting firm and certain investors, including the New York City controller’s office.

Wal-Mart says it has revised some of its practices since the unauthorized recordings were revealed. The company also says it did not act on a 2007 internal memo seeking a “threat assessment” of shareholders thought to be opposed to management policies.

The company is correct in noting that it has a responsibility to keep tabs on potential threats to its operations. But the issue here largely seems one of degree. As one security consulting executive told The Journal, Wal-Mart’s surveillance program seemed “Orwellian.”

The question of whether Wal-Mart snooped on activist shareholders was recently referred to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York office.

Wal-Mart’s board of directors should act on its own to help clear the air.

It should oversee its own investigation, find out how extensive the snooping was and then make those results public.

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