Sun’s demand for personal information angers partner community

A request by Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) that its partner community provide it with confidential information about their ownership, employees and contractors has angered a number of members of Sun Canada’s partner community and left them questioning what use or right the vendor has to such information.

Not all partners appear to have received the request and some refused to comment, but Computer Dealer News (CDN) spoke with several Sun partners that confirmed they had received the letter from Sun, which requested information such as resumes and background checks for ownership, employees and even contractors.

A portion of the letter sent to Sun partners, obtained by CDN, indicates the request is part of a Due Diligence program launched by Sun to keep the vendor in “compliance with international anti-corruption regulations” and is necessary due to increased regulatory complexity and corporate compliance requirements.

“This Program is designed to ensure that Sun is in compliance with anti-corruption laws throughout the world,” said the letter. “To meet these requirements, we must also understand our partner’s business ethics and reasonably determine that they are not involved in corrupt practices.”

The program could be related to a disclosure Sun filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May that it had recently discovered internal activities in undisclosed foreign countries that Sun feels could have violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The vendor indicated at the time it had launched an investigation by outside legal counsel, and could not rule out the possibility of criminal charges or fines. Oracle also indicated it had been briefed on the activities before signing the agreement to purchase Sun.

While most of the partners that confirmed receiving the request indicated they had complied with Sun’s request, there was widespread displeasure and disappointment at the perceived invasiveness of the information requested.

One partner indicated Sun wanted personal information about himself, including his private place of residence, information he wasn’t comfortable providing but did so only because he felt his relationship with Sun could be on the line.

“They were looking for some private information with the stick being if you don’t do this, you may not be able to sell our products,” said the partner, who asked not to be named. “It asked me for where I live and what the ownership of my company is; something a manufacturer has no right to know as far as I’m concerned.”

Sun also asked for information about employees and contractors, with the motivation seeming to the partner to be to discover if people had past relationships with Sun as well as any connections to government.

Another partner that confirmed receiving the request called it “hog-wash” and several said they have indicated their displeasure to their Sun account managers. One remarked the document seemed to be designed to give Sun some measure of “back-up” for compliance purposes, but that it was far and above any level information they’ve been asked for by Sun in the past or by any other vendor.

“I did fill it out because the implication was if you want to be a Sun partner you’d better comply, so we did comply,” said one partner. “But it was overly intrusive.”

Sun Canada declined a request for interview on the program, but it did provide a statement to CDN that confirmed the Partner Due Diligence Program is a global program that, as part of Sun’s anti-corruption program, is designed to fulfill Sun’s obligations under U.S. law and was designed to get the specific information needed to satisfy the requirements of the U.S. SEC and Department of Justice.

“As part of this Program, a partner information questionnaire (PIQ) was distributed globally and has been completed by more than 2,000 Sun partners,” said Sun Canada. “Sun’s questionnaire was reviewed for global data privacy issues and is on par with questionnaires used by many other companies.

The program does not appear related to due diligence around Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, despite coming while the deal is in the process of closing. Judson Althoff, senior-vice president of worldwide alliances and channels for Oracle, told CDN that Oracle does not own Sun at this point and therefore has no ability to dictate to them what their channel policy will be.

Oracle does, of course, have its own due diligence channel policy and Althoff said Oracle asks its partners to live up to a code of ethics. “We do ruthlessly respect partner and customer confidentiality and we do this with as much professionalism as we can,” he said.

After this article was first published online, CDN was contacted by a Sun partner that said it had completed the questionnaire and viewed it as a positive initiative. Douglas Grosfield, president of Kitchener, Ont.-based Xylotek Solutions, said the program provides an increased level of confidence for partners.

“This was in no way considered unwelcome by any Sun partner I know directly, and simply makes sense to protect business partners in today’s economic and business climate,” he said.

— With files from Paolo Del Nibletto

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

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