A group of reporters and their family members whose private telephone records were secretly obtained as part of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom surveillance scheme sued the technology giant and two former executives Wednesday.Five lawsuits, each alleging "illegal and reprehensible conduct," were filed in San Francisco Superior Court against Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, former Chairwoman Patricia C. Dunn and Kevin T. Hunsaker, the company's former ethics chief.
Both executives were ousted last year for their roles in HP's probe of unauthorized leaks to the media.
The probe turned into a national scandal for the world's No. 1 seller of personal computers and led to criminal investigations and congressional hearings over investigators' use of Social Security numbers and other personal information to trick phone companies into handing over confidential call logs -- a tactic known as pretexting.
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