Bloomberg has appointed Samuel J. Palmisano, the former chairman and CEO of IBM, to serve as an independent adviser regarding the company’s privacy and data standards.

Mr. Palmisano will 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 Bloomberg clients. Mr. Palmisano will report to Bloomberg’s board of directors.

Bloomberg has hired Hogan Lovells and the Promontory Financial Group to assist Mr. Palmisano.

In another development, Clark Hoyt, Editor-at-Large at Bloomberg News and formerly the public editor of the New York Times, will conduct a review of Bloomberg News’ relationship with the company’s commercial operations, including privacy and data policies.   

The appointments follow reports that Bloomberg journalists had access to data from Bloomberg financial terminals. Bloomberg leases these terminals for some $20,000 a year to financial institutions. You can read more about the privacy breach here.

[Image courtesy: Kowarisuki/Wikipedia]