HP Doesn't Quite Resolve Its Privacy Fiasco

Other than news of iPods and movie downloads, the major tech event of the day was word that Patricia Dunn, chairman of HP, will step down in the wake of the bizarre use of "pretexting" to get unauthorized access to the phone records of HP board members and reporters.

Dunn's time as HP chairman may be coming to an unhappy end as a result of reckless actions taken under her direction, but it still doesn't feel like the company truly took steps to put this behind it.

The official press release certainly acentuates the positive, with its cheery headline stating that Dunn will remain as chairman until January. Nowhere does the word "resigned" (or the less dignified "fired") appear. And it states that Dunn will remain a director.

Dunn's quote in the release does include an apology for unspecified "certain inappropriate techniques" used in the investigation, but it devotes considerably more words to the gravity of the leaks that inspired the investigation than it does to the data theft which she's apologizing for.

In other words, it's oblique and defensive and doesn't really prove that she understands what happened here. If Dunn had immediately said "We screwed up profoundly--no excuses" and apologized to the millions of people who trust HP to respect data privacy, not abuse it, you kind of wonder if she might have been able to hold onto her job.

The latest twist in this saga is that Congress and the FBI are launching investigations of HP's investigation. The company may be providing a soft landing for Chairman Dunn, but this story clearly isn't going away anytime soon...