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The President and his Crackberry
BBC NEWS | Americas | US Elections 2008 | Obama allowed to keep BlackBerry
President of the United States and he is worried about being “connected” to people who can text/email/whatever when he does something stupid? Really?
“If I’m doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, ‘What are you doing?’”
Because Chicago is the authority these days…Do we really need the President of the United States addicted to his crackberry?
Under the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act, most correspondence from the White House apart from that classed as “strictly personal” is recorded in the national archives.
So what is stopping President Obama from conducting non “strictly personal” correspondence with his crackberry? Not that he would stoop to such communication, but what is stopping it? What about the GPS feature? Isn’t that a security risk as well?
Curious of the safeguards in place, I looked for more information on this issue. UK news, NZ news and gizmodo are the only places I can easily find mention, but I soon stumbled across a story on MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28780205/. They are THE news source for all things Obama and it was actually a thorough write-up that explains some of the safety measures in place, but it still seems like a security risk. The GPS chip will have to be removed, but what about triangulating the cell signal? Wasn’t his cell service compromised pre-election? It was not clear about the Presidential Records Act requirements.
I can’t imagine giving up my phone, laptop, and email…but it seems that national security should/would take precedent over my gadget addiction. Here’s hoping for good encryption, unbreakable code, and safe cell surfing.
8 Responses to The President and his Crackberry
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Flair
You know…I never thought of any of these things. At all. Interesting.
Annie’s last blog post..I’m in a ‘blah’ state
If someone wants to crack the codes, they will.
I mean, come on. How many times have hackers gotten into the System?
Let him have his “fun”, he eventually will have to live with any consequences…
Unfortunately, it isn’t just President Obama that will have to live with the consequences. I don’t blame him really. I would have trouble with the disconnect too, but I think it is part of the job that he signed on for.
Well, it’s part of his job to to bring things out of medieval ages
And that seems where the technological part of the white house has been the last few years (years?)
This is the first technical savvy president it seems.
I don’t envy him for THAT job. I would rather deal with terrorists than try to convince his security staff of necessary changes.
Just another reason I don’t want his job!
sage’s last blog post..Writing About Your Life (A Book Review)
Not sure how necessary his blackberry usage is, but if the ‘net was truly secure I wouldn’t have much issue with it. I am not certain about the technical abilities of our last two presidents, but it has been written that they conformed to the expectation of the office regarding cell phone and email. With any leader there is a certain amount of personal space that has to be sacrificed in order to execute the office responsibilities. The cell is just one more distraction when there are constant interruptions in order to deal with national issues. But like Sage said, I’m not interested in the job. Too much headache.
I haven’t read a lot about this, but I do think it’s good that he wants to stay connected to the real world and not become isolated in some narrow-minded inner circle.
Bone’s last blog post..Bone snores on
No doubt it would drive me nuts to be disconnected Bone, but I would like the reassurance that Presidential communication of a non-personal manner will continue to be documented and that the President’s safety will not be compromised.