Greetings from Egypt. I’m blogging from a boardroom, not Tahrir Square. Hopefully Simon and I can get out and see some sights between concluding business and leaving, but so far have only managed to wave to the Pyramids from our hotel window.
Racing around the hotel and office looking for wireless signal got me thinking about the modern technology we mostly take for granted these days. We expect to pick up our cell phones and be able to make a call or send a text. We expect to be able to at least view, if not download, our e-mail and be able to respond. Our business and more and more, our personal lives, depend on it.
At work in most corporations, employees assume that their managers will read their email and that no privacy exists. Even at home, most folks don’t send an e-mail unless they are comfortable with the contents being forwarded to anyone and everyone.
But I have to admit, prior to the Murdoch scandal, I didn’t feel the same way about voicemail. Sure, some of my more dubious friends save voicemails to play back on television, but no one’s listening to my voicemail unless I play it for them. Or so we all thought.
Recently a gossip columnist tried to hire our housekeeper. She wasn’t very smooth about it and the answer was no. But breaking into people’s voicemail? It seems so much worse.
Maybe it’s a wake-up call. You wouldn’t dream of leaving a default password on an e-mail account, so if you haven’t changed your voicemail, stop reading and do it now. Yes, prosecute the hackers to the fullest degree, but don’t leave the door wide open for them to come in either.
