“President Bush said Thursday that he does not send e-mail, not even to his twin daughters, because he fears "my personal stuff" would be made public.”
http://news.com.com/Bush+fears+his+personal+e-mail+would+be+made+public/2100-1028_3-5671409.html?tag=cd.top
Wow... I'd like to hear a little more. For the most part I am not sypmathetic.
This article touches on a lot of issues though.
I think I’m more sympathetic to his concerns that you are. As long as I’m emailing folks inside Microsoft, I know my email is safe since my emails are never sent over public email servers, but the moment I send email to anyone outside Microsoft, it becomes very easy for anyone to read everything I say. For that reason, I would never sent emails with sensitive product information to a public email address.
If I were the president, I would want my private emails between me and my family members to stay private. Just because he’s the president doesn’t mean his private correspondence is anyone else’s business.
Just my 2 cents
I think this is blurring a couple of issues.
Anything you send to anyone at MS is “safe”? Do you consider making personal comments in a message to Bob and having it be used against you safe? How about if your mom or your buddy sends you an email message to your work account? The content of these messages may embarrass you or get you fired or arrested. While that may be safe, it certainly isn’t private.
As for Bush’s email w/ his daughters… sure. That should be private. But if he is saying he doesn’t use email because of privacy concerns, I say he is either too obtuse to understand email, or he is preying on the fact that most people in the world are too untechnical to understand… I’d say most likely he doesn’t understand.
It’s like Bush saying he won’t buy anything on the internet because he is afraid someone will get his credit card #. It doesn't make sense.
In all the email, in most organizations… email tends to be treated like written memos and property of the org. The problem is, good email etiquette urges personal content to be included along w/ business content. Further, email tools have not been convenient for maintaining separate personal/business email accounts. Everyone at MS has subscribed to “politik” on their Microsoft accounts even though there is probably no biz justification for doing this.
Long story short, George should ask one of his aids to explain how email works so he can feel safe sending email to his daughters outside of the prying eyes of anyone.
I'm going to agree with Eric on this one. I don't think Bush understands the technology, and the privacy issue is just an excuse. If he was really concerned about privacy between correspondence between him and his daughters he can simply go here, www.pgp.com and get all the security he needs.
I think easy access to the government decision making processes is the only way to sustain a true democracy. If he discusses government issues with his daughters, then it should be open, if not today then in 10 or 20 years. If is it family business then it should be private and I don't think the public has a right to know about it.
