In February of 2008, Congressman Darrell Issa was attempting to make the case that Lotus Notes was a dead email platform, and instead suggested that a more technologically sound way to archive would be to keep thousands of PST files. He stated "I wouldn't want to do business with somebody still using Lotus Notes or still using wooden wagon wheels." Needless to say, I couldn't disagree more, and not just because of Sonian's relationship with IBM and our support for Lotus Notes. I disagree because technology is constantly evolving, changing, and improving. The ways in which we can store, and subsequently search through, data has evolved in such a way that archiving PST files, as Congressman Issa suggests, is simply being naïve (or at least stubbornly inefficient). However, although it was these statements that brought Congressman Issa to my attention, it is not these statements that I am here to discuss.
Congressman Issa is back in the thick of White House IT operations, expressing concern over current Deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin's correspondence with members of his former employer, Google. There is a host of speculations about liberal conspiracy, conservative paranoia, etc. but the real issue pointed out by Issa was the ability McLaughlin could have to hide his communications. Google could potentially be used as a tool to keep staff email out from under watchful eyes of the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act.
Now comes another tricky policy called the Hatch Act. In short, the Hatch Act requires government personnel to use outside forms of communications for unofficial business, or non-governmental business. So for McLaughlin, if he wants to communicate with his old colleagues at Google, he has to use a Gmail or some other platform separate from the presidential servers. Issa, in this situation, believes that those emails separate from the official servers should be open and accessible to everyone in order to expose any duplicity or deceit. On the other hand, email and Presidency expert, David Gewirtz believes that the Hatch Act should be overturned completely and have all communication run through presidential servers.
There lies the dilemma: should all White House personal have all of their communications monitored, private and official? Should all their communications be combined into one mail platform? Or should there be varying forms of privacy, even within what is arguably the most important government hub in the world?
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