Shakespeare started it all, with Hamlet’s “to be, or not to be…” soliloquy.
How far does the dome of protection spread when it comes to our privacy?
Washingtonpost.com posted a brief story about Verizon Wireless, sharing that “a number of its [Verizon Wireless] employees have “accessed and viewed” President-elect Barack Obama’s personal cellphone account without authorization.”
The employees have since been put on administrative leave with pay, and an executive of Verizon issued a public apology.
Some time ago, another article, and probably a few more, brought to light whether the President-elect should toss his Blackberry when he is sworn in. Security is the main reason, because of the
vulnerability within cyberspace and unauthorized access to all types of accounts, including e-mail. Naturally, the highest elected public official of this country is warranted to have classified information
coming and going from his handheld, among other private content.
This brings me to a point–even though the phone in question “was a flip-phone that had been inactive for several months” it was ultimately accessed. Have people no sense of respect for the
sanctity of privacy? Are we as a society so driven by the quick buck, thirst for information, or in need of public recognition that we will stop at nothing to uncover any bit of knowledge, regardless
of how we come across it?
On the other hand, this is indeed the era of “infotainment” meaning that any and all information whether relevant, is of interest to a group of us–more so in the case of the President-elect.
Now, I’m not lying, I’d sure like to take a peek at his Blackberry to get a look behind the curtain of our 44th president, see how he converses with his colleagues, and to whom he has conversations
with. That’s the human in me. I just wouldn’t go out of my way to illegally gain access to information I’m not privy to in the first place.
However, if I came across his pager by sheer luck…who knows? I mean, you would at least need to check a message to see who is the owner–or navigate settings and find the user profile, and then
go about returning the pager to its rightful owner. What if you hit on a pressing e-mail that came from Rahm Emmanuel? Or, a message from Hillary Clinton accepting the Secretary of State job? Would
you sell it to CNN or the highest bidder?
I’m curious to learn your thoughts on this issue. Should Obama toss his Blackberry once he takes office on 20 January, or should he make the decision for himself, take into fact that we are a
mobile society, always on the go, even more so for the POTUS. Some of us have the luxury of sitting at a desk and checking our e-mails, while others simply perceive that as time they do not have.
They’d rather have access to their electronic content in hand or on their person, a constant tether to the virtual world.
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I think that any government official should make that decision for himself, whether or not to keep a pager. He should however be mindful of the security risks that come with having one, that e-mails could be breached anytime and should therefore take certain precautions when using it. I.e., no sensitive matters or state secret discussions over his pager which would probably be a reasonable compromise if he were to decide to keep a wireless device with him.
Obama will be the President of the United States of America. His personal “security risks” aren’t at stake anymore, national security could be compromised if a single email with “LOL” is breached.
How so?
Sacha–I agree with you–Obama should make that decision for himself. It boils down to this: how much does he depend on his device? And not just for work, but for daily things–he’s a known avid sports follower so the daily or weekly sports e-mails also factor in. There was a good article in the Post re: angles of transition, and Obama is experiencing “pains” already about not being able to live as normal a life as possible–so when you add a seemingly trivial decision about whether or not to keep an electronic device–that can be another chip on the block. Time will tell.
With the national security state in full bloom, I think it is unlikely that Obama will be able to enforce his preference to keep his Blackberry. The national security apparatus will make its own decisions in that regard.
I’m surprised that RIM hasn’t yet come up with a separate BB device and partnered with a wireless company for a network that would be ultra-secure with limited circle of contacts, highly stringent internal access control, stronger encryption and wholly separate from the consumer area. Seems like there would be a market for high-level governmental or corporate officials in addition to employees dealing with classified information.