Today there was a story on CNN about the government offering a $200,000 reward for tips on the 3 missing soldiers in Iraq. In the story they had a picture of the flier that they are hanging up with the details:
If you notice the email address is baghdadtipshotline@yahoo.com. Would you feel confident emailing in a tip that could potentially put your life at stake to a free email address that anyone could set up? This question has been raised before with businesses as to whether or not it’s professional to have a free email address as your main business account. In most cases – my answer is no, it’s not. In this case, I definitely don’t think it’s a good idea. Get a .gov email address or military one and it will give people an extra sense of security that this is official.
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I’m horrified and insulted that our government would operate that way. That’s disgusting and a complete “dis” to the soldiers and their families.
Chris Winfield and Kevin Rose on Rush Hour…
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Bad move. I would never trust a generic web mail service with anything of any importance.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Our government is run by old technology-challenged people. They are obviously oblivious to any difference between free email and a secure one.
Who could forget that Ted Stevens speech on series of tubes.
It is never a professional approach for businesses and governments to use free email accounts like Yahoo. It shows lack of seriousness.
Free email addresses are no no for government offices to use. Who can trust them when they use such addresses? Apparently nobody.