back to article Obama's BlackBerry to be banned?

A US law could force President-Elect Barack Obama give up his BlackBerry, it has been reported. The Presidential Records Act states that the soon-to-be-President’s correspondence must be available for view by US citizens, although there are restrictions. This would mean that everything included in emails written by Obama would …

COMMENTS

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  1. Tom

    He could just do like Bush.

    What emails?

    Opps the were deleted.

    Backup?

    or maybe get a yahoo account.

  2. Tommy

    McCain

    Then I guess it didn't matter that McCain doesn't know how to use email.

  3. Brian

    Big Brother

    Umm.. thats the whole point of a BES server is to be able to archive everything that goes through the phone. If you have a blackberry, big brother IS watching.

  4. jake Silver badge

    What was the issue, again?

    "The Presidential Records Act states that the soon-to-be-President’s correspondence must be available for view by US citizens, although there are restrictions. This would mean that everything included in emails written by Obama would then be up for public scrutiny."

    Uh ... in my experience, everything on a CrackBerry *IS* available for public scrutiny.

  5. Brandon Cord Bradshaw

    GroupWise

    cant GroupWise automatically archive all email?

  6. Monkey

    I guess it's untested territory...

    As the 'Speak and Spell' favoured in the White House for the last eight years didn't need much in the way of IT administration...

  7. Luke

    Bush used email?!

    Seems unlikely, unless email is what the kids are calling alcohol these days.

  8. michael

    strange

    as part of my job is notes/blackberry admin I know in our company at least all the emailes sent form the blackberry (excluding all the gmail but the same could be said for all external web email) go throught the notes server and are archived

  9. TimM

    Is this the actual issue?

    Sure I heard on Sky or BBC news that the concern was the (in)security of the Blackberry. He'll be allowed a laptop and can send/receive mail on that. It's just the BB they are concerned about. From what I heard.

  10. David Stever
    Joke

    Humour Alert

    <joke> Insert joke about crayon-as-stylus about the Bush Junta </joke>.

  11. Carl Pearson

    Archive Schmarchive

    I don't understand the big hooplah.

    Three little letters would solve the entire problem: bcc

    Just spool a copy to another box, have that routinely harvested to present his correspondence to the public, and everyone's happy.

    Maybe *I* should try out for that new tech czar position...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Still not enough black-helicopter minded it seems...

    The point is not that they wonder how to archive the emails, it is that they don't want such traces left behind. C'mon, try to be a bit more alert and in tune with this age's way of thinking!

  13. Daniel B.
    Black Helicopters

    BES

    Isn't actually the BlackBerry platform secure because of, erm, all that encrypted stuff between BES and the BlackBerry devices? BES even works for the crappy Exchange thingy Bush put in the White House instead of Notes (which is also BES-supported) so I see no problem with Obama just registering his BB to the White House's BES server. Exchange / Notes can track down all those sent emails from the BB device.

    Come on, the only real "security problem" might be that RIM is a Canadian company, but I recall that the BES links are encrypted all the way to the BES server.

    Now, if it were an iPhone... that's another story.

    Black choppers 'coz Big Brother is watching... Big Brother.

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