BlackRock accidentally posted spreadsheets full of information on thousands of financial advisors that use its ETFs, calling some 'dabblers' and others 'power users'
- According to a Bloomberg News story, multi-trillion-dollar asset manager BlackRock accidentally posted a link to spreadsheets full of information on the firm's advisor clients to its iShares ETF website.
- The spreadsheets reportedly showed the names, emails, and assets of advisors that had invested in iShares ETFs, as well as placing them in certain categories like "dabblers" and "power users."
- The link was taken down Friday, and the company said in a statement that no underlying client information was shared.
The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, accidentally posted information on its iShares ETF website of thousands of its advisor clients, according to a Bloomberg report.
The firm linked to three spreadsheets that reportedly included the names, email address, and iShares assets of thousands of advisors, as well as labels such as "dabbler" and "power user." There was also a column in the spreadsheet titled "Club Level" that included labels such as "Patriots Club" and "Directors Club." One sheet reportedly contained 12,000 entries. The sheets were dated from December 5, 2018, but it's not clear whether they were exposed since then.
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The New York-based manager deactivated the link to the spreadsheets on Friday, and a spokesman told Bloomberg that no underlying client information was shared. The firm is "conducting a full review of the matter," the statement reads.
While the firm's inadvertent release of advisor information was potentially online for more than a month, the data breach is minor compared to some of the hacks suffered by companies like Marriott hotels and others last year.
BlackRock's CEO Larry Fink's annual letter to companies was released Thursday as well, and called on public companies to fix the world's problems, arguing corporations have a responsibility to the communities they operate in.