Information Law Possum (discontinued)

An anonymous source provided me today with the latest Wall Street gossip: A Russian Yale college student entrusted his resumé plus motivational video to a well-know Swiss bank.  The resume sounds impressive, and so looks the video, especially the scene where the job applicant smashes a pile of bricks with his hand.  What’s even more impressive is the idea that thousands of investment bankers in New York, London, Frankfurt, Zurich or elsewhere are taking the time to share this information despite their 18 hour days, which arguably adds anecdotal evidence to the informational signaling theory. Anyway, the job applicant deservedly got his fifteen minutes of fame, which will save him a lot of introductory talk once he starts working in the business.

From this perspective, he seems a bit ungrateful, as he announced a host of lawsuits for public disclosure of private facts, which might not be a better idea than adding the ballroom dance scenes to his video.

In the meantime, some compliance officers might wonder whether they should recommend that the whole investment branch of their bank be fired or just the guy who forwarded the information first.  Seriously, this incident shows us that email usage policies are extremely difficult to enforce:  Firing a scapegoat HR staff assistant won’t likely scare the wits out of those who forwarded the information in the 1+nth instance, and I don’t think it should because gossip of that kind, as annoying as it may be for the subject, is part of everyday social life and much more harmless than many (or most) other forms of social interaction, such as mobbing, intrigues, and what we name in German “the use of elbows” to bring forward one’s carreer.

So, to terminate “Ivygate”, I suggest that the bank which leaked the information give the student the job he wants and let him use his elbows (only figuratively, please, we don’t want a bloodbath!) against all the guys who already made his acquaintance online.

By the way, if Switzerland had jurisdiction over the case, the person who initially forwarded the resumé to his or her friends would face imprisonment of up to 90 days and a fine of up to USD 30.000.  I don’t think it’s necessary to comment on the appropriateness of this legal solution to the problem.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 5:05 pm and is filed under data protection, litigation, privacy.