Late last year, there was a buzz going on after the election regarding President-elect Barack Obama’s BlackBerry. If you haven’t already noticed, the 87xx series device was attached to his hip nearly every second of the campaign. After the election, people began wondering how he’d feel about giving it up. Like George W. Bush before him, email is a service that has to be given up by the Commander In Chief due to security reasons. Can you imagine going four years or more without writing a personal email? Still, security trumps all else, especially for our nation, and the President-elect is being forced to give up his beloved ‘Berry.
“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”
In the event that emails, text messages and phone records need to be subpoenaed for court, privacy and security could be compromised. We also know that persistent and fervent hackers could probably hack into Obama’s BlackBerry if they really tried. It’s not likely Obama will be able to keep his BlackBerry, but he’s going to fight it regardless of the results. We’re torn on this one: We’d like for our new President to be able to keep his favorite gadget, but in this case it’s better to be safe than sorry.
