UK Politician Criticised For Using Hotmail

nk497 writes "The UK justice secretary Jack Straw has been criticised for using Hotmail as his official government email account after he apparently fell foul of a Nigerian spammer in a phishing attack. A security researcher said using such an account not only left the government in security trouble, but meant any emails sent could not be necessarily accessed via the Freedom of Information Act."

Comments

Not government account

[todslash]

It was not his official government email account, it was his constituency email account.

Re:Not government account

[teh kurisu]

And that's not Joe Shmoe of Backwater Inc with data nobody might be interested in, it's the Justice Secretary.

This person is an elected official. Essentially, the mails he receives and sends (related to his office, of course, not his private communication) are property of the voters of the United Kingdom. It's time that people realize again that their officials are supposed to work for them, not for themselves.

He's also the MP for Blackburn, and a member of the Blackburn Labour Party. The email address in question was "blackburnlabour@hotmail.com", which you would expect to be used for constituency correspondence and party business, both of which fall outside the purview of the Freedom of Information Act.

I would expect government business to be conducted through a Parliamentary or Ministry of Justice email address, as appropriate. I wouldn't expect party business to be conducted using a Parliamentary or Ministry email address, in fact I would be surprised if this wasn't against the rules of those organisations.

The article alleges (or very strongly implies) that Straw was using his Hotmail account to conduct government business, without providing any evidence to back up its claim.

In summary, Jack Straw has many hats, and the email address he uses should depend on the hat he is wearing at the time. There is no suggestion that he is doing otherwise.

Re:Not much detail in fta...

[jgurling]

Ok, so the bbc article gives more info.

Looks like it was a secretary who responded to a phishing e-mail. Good to know we're all in safe hands...

Straw and FOIA, best of friends.

[Xest]

This is the same Straw that rather than filing a legal challenge to the information commissionars ruling that the Iraq war documents be leaked decided to just outright make the first use ever of ministerial veto against FOIA requests.

His reasons for vetoing were, from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7907991.stm) and I shit you not:

"Releasing the papers would do "serious damage" to cabinet government, he said, and outweighed public interest needs."

I'm not sure why he'd think it's in public interest to keep a corrupt, incompetent, totalitarian regime in power?

And:

"There is a balance to be struck between openness and maintaining aspects of our structure of democratic government,"

Sorry, I thought the whole point of democracy was that we get to decide that balance, not those in power? His decision flies in the very face of democracy.

So quite why anyone as per the summary would think Straw cares in the slightest about FOIA I don't know. He's just like Jacqui Smith and nearly all the others in the Labour party right now- a wannabe dictator who oppresses freedom of information to cling on to power.

Re:Since when?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Cabinet Minutes of the meetings, lies and half truths of the Blair Government that lead us into an illegal war, costing lives and national treasure has been supressed by the Government.

By Jack Straw, in fact, who used his ministerial veto under the Freedom of Information Act to do it. So yes, Jack Straw doesn't care about FoI at all.

Re:"Freedom of Information Act"

[Sockatume]

In what way is it an Orwellian usage of the term? It's a legal Act which forces organisations of any type (from businesses to governments) to yeild information when a request is made, and to ensure the information is kept in such a way that it would be available if such a request ever materialised in the future. The only sinister thing about it is that it's not got more teeth.

Off Topic

[FatdogHaiku]

How about you? You are always that impolite? i was responding to the above person. You think your very smart?

According to his profile he is sometimes Interesting, Insightful, Informative, Redundant, and occasionally posts Flamebait... Just the kind of person one would hope to find here.

and I'm sure I just got an off topic...