Bussiness
Backpack company executive denies providing customer info on UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter
Peak Design CEO Peter Dering said he contacted police after one of the company’s backpacks was worn by the shooter in Brian Thompson’s killing.
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The CEO of a company that makes high-end backpacks has faced heavy criticism after the executive said he contacted police to say he spotted one of his products on the suspect who shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
In an interview with The New York Times, Peak Design CEO Peter Dering said multiple people alerted him via text that the alleged shooter depicted in surveillance images released by police appeared to be wearing one of his company’s backpacks. The revelation, Dering said, prompted him to call New York Police Department’s tip line the day after the shooting to provide them the information.
Now that Luigi Mangione has been arrested and charged in the Dec. 4 killing of Thompson, Dering and his company have come under fierce condemnation on social media among those who see the killing as an indictment of the U.S. health care industry.
Amid the outrage, the company released a statement last week to clarify its privacy policy.
Peak Design CEO tells Times he contacted NYPD about backpack
Surveillance photos released by the New York Police Department of the man suspected of having fatally shot Thompson show the gunman wearing a gray backpack.
The backpack, which was later found with fake money from a Monopoly game inside following the shooting, appears to be an older version of an Everyday Backpack made by San Francisco-based Peak Design, Dering told the Times. The bag, designed for both photographers and casual use, was one Dering believed the company had stopped selling in 2019.
Dering told the Times a day after the shooting that when he called the tip line, the person who answered said “hundreds” of calls had already come in identifying the backpack as a Peak Design product. Still, Dering told the Times that, were the police to seek further information from him, he would check with his general counsel on what details he could release without violating the company’s privacy guidelines.
“Of course, my instinct would be to do whatever is possible to help track this person down,” Dering told the Times.
According to reports from CNN and Axios, Dering also stated he and Peak Design employees had been the target of threats in wake of the shooting. USA TODAY has reached out to the company for comment.
Greg Ewing,a data privacy attorney in Washington, D.C., told CNN it is standard for companies to share customer information in response to a court order or subpoena.
Peak Design clarifies privacy policy in wake of criticism
Dering’s admission prompted a wave of social media backlash, with some painting the CEO as a “snitch” and others sharing concerns about how their own shopping data could be used against them.
The company released a statement Friday seeking to allay those concerns, saying “Peak Design has not provided customer information to the police and would only do so under the order of a subpoena.”
“We cannot associate a product serial number with a customer unless that customer has voluntarily registered their product on our site,” according to the statement. “If you do choose to register a Peak Design product, and it is lost or stolen, you can reach out to our customer service team and have your registration erased, so the bag is not traceable back to you.”
The statement also linked to the company’s customer privacy policy.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
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