Kilpatrick is hosed...

TangoWhiskey said:
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS05/301230008

I think the bigger question, from the perspective of personal privacy, is this: does your cell phone provider really keep a record of all YOUR text messages? And, if so, for how long, why, and who can get access to them?
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The question here was not personal privacy. All the messages were on City owned phones by the Mayor and Chief of Staff. They should have had no expectation that those communications would be private on those phones.

I have done some work with brokerage firms and every phone call is recorded and all company emails are retained for years. If you want to talk to your mistress you best do it on your own cell phone not the company one.

The interesting comment last night from an attorney for one of the news shows was that it will be hard to prove perjury even with those messages. Unless there is some some witness to verify the messages are authentic and not fabricated isn't there reasonable doubt. Then of course these records were subpeoned in 2004 and 2007 and only appeared now and through a newspaper.
 
RMCN172RG said:
Then of course these records were subpeoned in 2004 and 2007 and only appeared now and through a newspaper.
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According to news reports there was an effort by the city administration to interfere with the subpoena. It has been reported that the city administration filed a motion to quash and communicated that to the cell phone provider telling them not to release those records until further notice.

I think of the old saying "where there's smoke there's fire". There seems to be a lot of smoke coming from the Mayor's office.

Having grown up in Detroit and living in the area all my life I can only say I am appalled by what Detroit has become. The neighborhoods where I grew up were once beautiful well kept neighborhoods where people took pride in their homes. Those areas look like burned out war zones now with the area around the Detroit City Airport being one of the worst in the city.

I thought the city had a chance of turning around when Dennis Archer was the Mayor but I think he gave up due to an overwhelming degree of corruption and cronyism left over from the Coleman Young administration. I really liked Dennis Archer and I thought he was good for the city, it's too bad his administration was short lived. Then came Kwame who has been referred to as Detroit's Hip Hop Mayor.

One of the things I find most appalling about people in positions of power is a level of arrogance that makes so many of them believe they are entitled to do as they please with total impunity. I think this is what often leads them to do stupid things like these text messages.

Unfortunately those who are committed to selfless public service are extremely rare individuals.
 
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I always feel like I'm visiting a third-world country when I have to go work in Detroit. The downtown area is like a ghost city, especially at night. There are patches of renewal here and there, but it just seems empty, like a Stephen King style disaster killed off 90+ % of the inhabitants.
 
TMetzinger said:
I always feel like I'm visiting a third-world country when I have to go work in Detroit. The downtown area is like a ghost city, especially at night. There are patches of renewal here and there, but it just seems empty, like a Stephen King style disaster killed off 90+ % of the inhabitants.
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Oh, wonderful. My professional society's international symposium is in Detroit this summer. It's going to be quite a letdown for some folks after last year (Honolulu). :D
 
Ghery said:
Oh, wonderful. My professional society's international symposium is in Detroit this summer. It's going to be quite a letdown for some folks after last year (Honolulu). :D
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Yabut the hotel rooms are a bunch cheaper!

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
Yabut the hotel rooms are a bunch cheaper!

-Skip
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About $25/night based on our negotiated rates, that's all. We got a heck of a deal on the Hilton Hawaiian Village for last year. They were hurting when we signed the contract several years earlier.
 
So, now that Cingular is AT&T, what's the status?

http://www.engadget.com/2004/06/21/sprint-and-cingular-do-not-keep-copies-of-your-text-messages/

Sprint and Cingular did not archive user's text messages, AT&T does. Still trying to find out about Verizon.

[EDIT: This link indicates that Verizon archives text messages: "Verizon complied. It turned over three sets of documents: information about the account holder linked to that phone number, a list of the complete contents of the text messages sent or received by cellular telephone number (301) 325-XXXX between June 6 and October 31, 2007, and a log of whom Jackson sent messages to from her Verizon e-mail address."]

I don't think ANY cell phone provider could prove a legitimate reason to keep copies of customer's text messages after delivery is confirmed. I'd switch providers to go to one that doesn't archive, just to make my position known.

Anonymous (and spoofed) text messages can be sent from here: http://www.anontxt.com/
 
On the other hand...

http://www.freepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/BLOG01/80124038/1138/BLOG

So who is right? And how did Verizon comply with an order to turn over months worth of a customer's text messages if they only store them for "a very short time"?

I know the financial company I work for does store copies of all electronic communications to and from company devices, including Blackberrys and cell phones, regardless of provider, but they do that through special arrangement.

Perhaps the Verizon order/subpoenae was on a phone that was subject to such monitoring/archiving....
 
I wonder if there are special archive requirements spelled out by city contract. There are a lot of businesses that keep all e-mail for many years do to Sarbanes Oxley and other requirements.
 
Maverick said:
I wonder if there are special archive requirements spelled out by city contract. There are a lot of businesses that keep all e-mail for many years do to Sarbanes Oxley and other requirements.
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I think that's exactly what it was here...
 
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