Obama's Cell Phone Records Looked At By Verizon Workers

WASHINGTON — Verizon employees snuck a peek at President-elect Barack Obama's old cell phone records and will be reprimanded accordingly, the company said late Thursday.

Obama aides said no voicemails or e-mails were accessed.

In a statement, Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam apologized to Obama and disclosed the breach, saying: "a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account."

He said the account has been inactive for several months and Obama had been using a simple voice flip-phone without email capabilities.

"All employees who have accessed the account _ whether authorized or not _ have been put on immediate leave, with pay," McAdam said. "Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action."

Comments

[iPolitics]

At a meeting Thursday night, the five-member Hempstead (Long Island, NY) school board voted unanimously to rename one of its schools Barack Obama Elementary School, said Superintendent Joseph Laria

[MariaHopeful]

We should all dump Verizon so as to send the strongest message to all the other companies. They should be made to pay dearly for this breach.

[DannyEastVillage]

why should they? Obama signed off on telcom immunity. I think it's dynamite that this has happened so quickly. Makes you wonder if it'll give him some more "perspective" concerning telcom immunity.

[conniedogs]

Why dump good service because of what a few employees did.....no thanks!

[realiybased2]

Most company policies involving investigation of alleged disciplines rqequires that the employee be put on immediate suspension with pay until after the investigation. To avoid unecessary hardship in case the employee is innocent and therefore does not require back pay if employee is found to be innocent.

I am retired now but I used to work for one the wireless company and one of the number one largest freight companies in the world and records have to be checked to determine exactly how many employees were involved and who those employees were and of those, who had legitimate reasons to access an account even if it is dormant..

Just innocent til proven guilty, this called "due process".

[denicci1977]

Umm paid leave = vacation. They should be on leave without pay..

[Outofnowhere]

Excuse me but, leave, WITH PAY, I'll take that "punishment" any day.

[lisakaz2]

Geez, O'bama, maybe you oughta get a different phone carrier. No wonder why his handlers want to take away his BlackBerry.

[mairs]

I had a man s n o o p on me for personal reasons, and he got access to my Verizon account through an employee. He worked for a go ve rnm ent s ec ur ity contractor. I don't trust in any telecom's ability to keep this from happening.

[LMPE]

You know how there's a war crimes tribunal? There needs to be a corporate crimes tribunal. Granted, there would probably be more lawsuits than anyone could count, but that's just fine by me.

[IzzyCA]

A Corporate Crimes Tribunal. Now that's a really good idea!

[demofem]

If they did spy on his account, I hope they get fired.

[notKeith]

Not just fired - thrown in jail.

[leftoflennon]

Asses!

[HuntedDown]

Wow. I'm surprised. Such outrage from people who only a few months ago were cheering wildly that someone hacked Palin's personal email and posted stuff all over the internet. You know, iportant government stuff like pictures of her kids...

But of course, I forget. Our Maria is a Shark, while your Tony is a Jet. Four legs good, two legs bad. yeah for our team, forget right and wrong.

[lisakaz2]

The hacker wasn't a company employee. You don't see a difference?

[Lazslo]

good point. Except for the Maria and Tony part. Totally effin lost me there.

[jhink465]

West Side Story. Great theater. A classic.

[nin]

"paid leave"?

I smell a rat.

[thefireguy]

A vert good reason not to use or buy into Verizon... and it's not the first time either.

[BellGirl08]

Unbelievable!

"All employees who have accessed the account _ whether authorized or not _ have been put on immediate leave, WITH PAY," McAdam said.

So, they get a freaking paid vacation for snooping on the President-elect of the United States of America!

I sure hope everyone boycotts this company. The owner, the CEO and their managment OBVIOUSLY has no problem with their employees snooping on people, no matter who they are.

[clbrune]

It's ok if Bush tells people to illegally spy on US citizens without probable cause or warrants, but it's not ok for verizon employes to do the same thing on their own?

I wonder if the low level employees will get the same wink and nod that Bush is getting...

[OKNative]

Take a breath people. Those that took a peek are more than likely customer care representatives that have the ability to look at call records for billing/dispute purposes. They had access to the same information available to them if you had called about an issue with your own account.