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

[Slackjaw1]

Well, I hope that someone over at Verizon reads this. I was just about to sign up with them for phone service, but now I know they cannot be trusted. No Thanks verizon!

[plzchuteme]

Good choice. They have really lousy service anyway.

[FreedomTruth]

If i was President-elect,i'd have my secret service agent guys make them vanish and never to be heard fron,nor seen ever again.

[jesther]

What do you mean by that? Send them to Guantánamo or just off them? How Pinochet-esque of you.

On another note, your sentence should read: If I were President-­elect....

[SeattleCharles]

Given the past allegations about Verizon's cooperation with domestic surveillance (never to be tried), this should be looked at very closely. It may not be a simple matter of some "rogue" employees.

[RipCity]

"All employees who have accessed the account -- whether authorized or not -- have been put on immediate leave, with pay..."

HaHaHa. Verizon is paying these employees to enjoy an extra long Thanksgiving holiday. CEO Lowell McAdam must have recognized how irrational it would be to punish employees for doing exactly the same thing they were paid to do for Bush.

[weatherwaxx]

"exactly the same thing they were paid to do for Bush."

It wouldn't be surprising to find this is the case here, too.

[BellGirl08]

that was exactly my first thought too.

[magnolialiberal]

They have to verify who was authorized to have access. The way some of these systems work, it will set off a flag whenever there is a spike in activity, as in an unusually large number of people accessing Obama's account. Then they get a list of all the people who accessed the records and match it up to those who were authorized. It takes a little time. This isn't a TV show where everything has to be resolved by the time the show ends, this is real life. They will want to be sure of the facts (unlike some people) before they go further with disciplinary actions, firings, demotions, whatever.

[plzchuteme]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why multiple people were accessing a DORMANT account.

[weatherwaxx]

Looking for anything Palin could use to whip up the "real" americans.­.. Did Obama place a late-night order for falafels? Obviously suspicious!

[quiviran]

The even more interesting question is "To whom were they reporting the results of their snooping?"

[one4obama]

Put on leave? Are they serious?

They should be fired.

Put on leave is just a slap on the wrist and will not deter anyone else from doing the same.

These guys can make a rather lucrative career from gathering information from those cell phone records. Like i said, the leave is just a slap on the wrist.

[weatherwaxx]

Most of 'em probably will be fired -- but occasionally tech and business-office people do check accounts, and if the access was legitimate, those folks shouldn't be punished. The article says they're checking out which were legit and which weren't.

[BellGirl08]

um, how could it be 'legitimate' if the account was closed months ago. There should be absolutely NO reason to go look at a closed account.

[Forester]

Now watch, Verizon and the other carriers will soon be offering "secure" wireless service for an extra $50/month that will absolutely gaurantee unauthorized spying, just like the Clear Pass airline security screening service laptop that was recently stolen.
Privacy is a joke in the country, we knew that the day ATT and Verizon folded to Bushco on illegal wiretapping. It is also of interest that the on-site govt. contractors hired by NSA et al to "monitor" domestic communications are mostly ex Israeli military. This is all true. Can you hear me now?

[eXACTO]

guess who else folded on warrantless wiretapping?

[Caddisfly]

Fire them.

[htd2009]

Time to go satellite, Mr. President

[zippitydoo]

It's 3AM.....a phone is ringing in The White House....w­ho could it be?

[Bitsko]

Customer service?

[scooperss]

From India.

[Reaganwater]

I hope we can dispense with this false equivalence , Nonetheless , Out-of-Plumb Joe and Sarah Queen of Tanning should NOT be investigated or harassed or spyed upon with Gov Computers phones etc OR with unauthorized private sources either .
How that makes the Obama infraction OK is logic of a type normally reserved for the flakey flock of Rove and his followers.

[MizLiz]

You know, I wonder if some of those Verizon employees weren't disappointed republicans, hoping to find "proof" that Obama was chatting daily with William Ayers, or something equally inflammatory. This is the only thing that comes to mind. Who else would bother, and why?

[GuyFawkes]

My first thought was just the opposite: curious Obama fans. Either way, it's bad news.

[Lizaxyz]

Totally on the mark. Yes, shame on Verizon! I can't believe that Verizon workers had access to this! We're not talking about some college geek hacking into phones/websites. These are employees, who unless had authorization should be fired. I mean we're talking about the President Elect here - not some governor from an iceberg for crying out loud!

[marriage116]

Come on people, every American is entitled to privacy whether they are liberal Dems or Conservative Repubs. Sarah Palin, Barrack Obama, Joe the Plumber - everybody should have their privacy, not just the people you agree with politically. Didn't hear much outrage when Sarah Palin's personal e-mail was hacked. It was wrong and you know it and they found nothing wrong. I worry sometime about the pedestal Obama is being put on. I like the man, but remember, just like his wife said, he IS just a MAN. Don't set him up to fail.

[lefty247]

privacy?..­..you must be joking, this is still bush's america, privacy is just a word until jan. 20, 09.

ps ----boycott Verizon

[BSERIUS]

Yet to see ONE iota where any of President Bush' policies have invaded the privacy of a single US citizen... Even Barack supported them......­.Have seen though the results where we have had NO , NONE , ZILCH terrorist attacks on US soil in 7 years.

[hortonhearsawho]

"nothing wrong"? they have the wolrds best linguistics trying to decipher its meaning at this time.

[Yarrr]

Well said. As much as I dislike Palin I didn't think her hacked email was right, or should be relevant. Same thing for Obama.

[plzchuteme]

Not too well said. I forgot a few Rs here and there.

[Ajita]

The reason Palin's account was hacked into was to protest her illegal usage of private email accounts to do business. Government officials are supposed to use government emails because they need to be on the official record.
Obama was not breaking any law to keep his conversations off the government record.
This is false equivalency you are using.

[plzchuteme]

I was outraged when Sarah Palin's e-mail was hacked, but I also remember something about her doing official business on a Yahoo account so it could not be tracked. The difference here is that the hacker was a criminal much like a burglar who breaks into your house and goes through you stuff. The Verizon people were to be trusted. What if the gas company meter reader came into your house and you caught him going through you underwear drawer?

[huffposeur]

"I also remember something about her doing official business on a Yahoo account so it could not be tracked."

democrat or republian, black or white, male or female, qualified or unqualified, EVERY elected official these days, from town council to POTUS use alternate email addresses for the same reason.

[Ajita]

Sarah Palin was the one who was first breaking the law to keep her dealings off the government record. She should be prosecuted first. Government officials need to be held to a higher standard than that. Stop defending crooks. Her hackers were prosecuted but she wasnt.

[darthdarcy]

So since everybody else is spying on every call from, The NSA, DARPA, Eschelon, FBI, RNC, Pentagon, why not Verizon or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, privacy is a total joke in this country TIA is all but complete..­!

[Wigelah]

Why would they put employees who were authorized to look at the account on immediate leave? That seems like overkill. Nosiness has gotten ridiculous.

[Strywever]

Perhaps it's going to take some time to sort out who had a legitmate need to look at the account and who did not.

[JL-PICARD]

The ones who legitimatley accessed his account just got an extra paid vacation!

[exxonmobil4prez]

HELLO???? It's the president elect's phone.. That's why.. OY

[Wigelah]

Hello???? The were AUTHORIZED. Sheesh.