Bloomberg knew in 2011 about the privacy issue that has concerned powerful clients including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and the Federal Reserve, but failed to close the loophole until Goldman’s recent complaint that reporters had kept track on its partners using private terminal data.

Executives at the financial data company, whose terminals sit in trading floors, hedge fund offices, law firms and central banks around the world, were alerted to reporters’ ability to see when clients log on to their terminals and which functions they use when a reporter mentioned the practice on Bloomberg TV, people familiar with the situation said.

The reporter was reprimanded for commenting about using such information to track the subject of at least one story, Buzzfeed reported. Bloomberg declined to comment but one person familiar with the situation said the company resolved at the time to end reporters’ access to such data and realised that it had not done so only when Goldman called to complain.