HP Wants to Boot Board Member Who Leaked Secrets

HP is seeking to remove a member of its board of directors after an internal investigation showed he was responsible for leaking confidential board-level discussions to the media. The company said it will not renominate George A. Keyworth II to his seat on the board HP reportedly put some board members under surveillance and may have tracked their phone records as part of the leak inquiry. California law enforcement officials are reviewing the investigation.

Among the issues being examined is whether HP used so-called "pretexting" to obtain the phone records of board members. Pretexting involves a third party posing as a telephone customer to obtain phone call records. While not illegal, the practice has come under fire from privacy experts. Earlier this year, the state of California sued Web-based firms that resold phone records obtained through pretexting. The computer maker,which has put together a string of strong quarters under new CEO Mark Hurd and is in the midst of a major restructuring push, disclosed that it had asked Keyworth to resign from its board in May. "HP has been the subject of multiple leaks of confidential HP information, including information concerning the internal deliberations of its board of directors," the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.