Verizon employees have accessed one of President-Elect Barack Obama's cellular accounts without permission. Yesterday, Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam made the following statement (partially edited):

“This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama’s personal cell phone account.... Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action.... We apologize to President-Elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day.”

The account in question had not been used in months and was connected to a regular cellphone rather than a smartphone like the BlackBerry that would have been used for email by Obama. Something about this news makes those commercials with the whole crew of workers standing behind a Verizon customer somewhat disturbing.

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