Bloomberg Appoints Former IBM CEO as Privacy Advisor

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Samuel Palmisano

Bloomberg LP on Friday announced the appointment of a privacy advisor after being embroiled for a week in criticism of the news service's reporters using the company's namesake terminals to obtain private information on Wall Street traders.

Samuel J. Palmisano, former Chairman and CEO of IBM, will serve as an independent advisor for the company's privacy and data standards, Bloomberg said in a press release. In addition, it said Clark Hoyt, the former public editor at the New York Times and now an editor-at-large at Bloomberg, would review the news side's relationship with the business side.

(Read More: Six Questions Bloomberg LP Needs to Answer)

"Palmisano will immediately undertake a review of the company's current practices and policies for client data and end user information, including a review of access issues recently raised by the company's clients," the release said. He will report to Bloomberg's board of directors.

"Nothing is more important than our clients' trust," Bloomberg CEO and President Daniel L. Doctoroff said in the release.

On May 10, the New York Post reported that Goldman Sachs had complained after learning that Bloomberg was using client information obtained from the Bloomberg terminal for news reporting. In one instance, a reporter said a Goldman employee had not logged into the terminal recently.

The company apologized for the breach of privacy. JPMorgan Chase, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are looking into the matter.

(Read More: JPMorgan Demands Bloomberg Staff Logs)