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Article: Big brother. (Proctor & Gamble gets the phone company to search 800,000 phone records for business leaks but reap poor public relations fallout) (American Survey)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 24, 1991
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FOR all the respect the people of Cincinnati feel for the power of Procter & Gamble, they had not thought it could use the city's police to trace its commercial leaks. Using an obscure 1974 Ohio law prohibiting the disclosure of "any confidential matter or information" without a company's consent (and punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine), the giant consumer-products firm called in the cops earlier this month to protect itself against what it called "a disturbing pattern of leaks" since the beginning of the year.
The company had been stung by unfavourable articles in the Wall Street journal about the poor performance of its food and drink ...