KPMG secretly and repeatedly accessed the consultant’s work computer to extract documents detailing their alleged data misuse, then shared the story with senior partners and the firm’s former chief executive, the Australian Financial Review reported. The world watch company had a legal right to access the employee’s laptop.
What makes the timing stand out: it did so while the caller was arguing with KPMG about their legal defense.
The secret search, reportedly carried out by IT staff on instructions from the firm’s general counsel’s office for nearly two years, also contradicts management’s claim that it did not have enough information to investigate.
“It seems that there is a tendency to abuse the privilege of legal professionals to cover up sins in serious relationships,” said Senator Deborah O’Neill, who aired the allegations in parliament. “Hidden concealment just kills them.”
The shame below
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Background is one of the biggest business management issues in Australia. A former KPMG auditor alleged that partners repeatedly shared confidential client information internally to win lucrative audit contracts, including using board papers from Lendlease, an audit client, to secure work for Westpac, Dexus, and Macquarie.
These allegations, aired in parliament by Senator Deborah O’Neill, are disputed. KPMG initially called them “unsubstantiated”, then admitted that the government’s conduct and its internal investigation “were not carried out properly”.
The fallout was severe. KPMG Australia’s chief executive Andrew Yates and head of audit have resigned, corporate regulator ASIC is officially investigating partners, the company has lost decades of research at Lendlease, and governments are reviewing more than A$650m of contracts. Twelve current and former allies face a parliamentary inquiry on 19 June.
“If a company like KPMG can do that at Lendlease, they can do it at anyone,” O’Neill told the ABC.
The moving part
For everyone outside of Australian accounting, a laptop is a familiar piece of information. Employers can now monitor employees more than most realize, from keystroke logging to webcam monitoring, and the line between legitimate surveillance and surveillance is thin and subjective. TNW reports on how far workplace monitoring has come and why firms should be wary of it.
The KPMG case sharpens this question in a very difficult way: what happens if an employer uses that legal access to the person trying to disclose it?
The irony sits awkwardly at a company that has bet hard on technology, recently putting Anthropic Claude in front of all of its 276,000 employees. The same methods that make work more effective also make employees more readable to their employers, and the rules for what managers can do about it seem to be written mostly by managers.
Australia’s assistant treasurer said the government would consider new rules to better protect criminals. An open question, beyond KPMG, is whether we were “legally allowed” to remain adequately responsive when the viewing device is the entire desk.
