"For most people, the answer is ...don't worry."
(That, according to Time Magazine, who didn't see this.)
"In the mayor's case (see last story), the reason his messages have been exposed is because of the specialized service the city has contracted with to handle wireless communications between city officials. Although the scandal is already being dubbed BlackBerrygate by wags, the gizmo the mayor and Beatty used to communicate wasn't a BlackBerry at all.
It was a SkyWriter, and although it looks a lot like a BlackBerry, it's a dedicated messaging device provided to the city by SkyTel, a Mississippi-based wireless company that specializes in providing paging and messaging services to large corporations and governmental bodies through its own wireless network and devices.
"Every message sent over the SkyTel network ... is recorded, including: Date and time the message was sent... 'From' address... 'To' address... Length of the message..Entire message content up to 2,000 characters ," notes the company on its Web site in an article about the "benefits of message archiving."
For major corporations and governments, the automatic archiving of such messages is important, where legal requirements mandate the storage of all business- or government-related communications. But tell the mayor that's a benefit today." (more)
