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Trump’s plan to ban phones in the White House to stop leaks just leaked

Clearly, the White House has a problem.

 

Andrew Couts

Tech

Posted on Nov 27, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 9:49 am CDT

President Donald Trump‘s latest plan to stop information from leaking out of the White House has leaked.

Bloomberg spoke with seven unnamed sources who confirmed that Trump wants to ban White House staffers from bringing their personal phones to work, a move that some sources believe could have unintended consequences.

The main complaint appears to be that staffers would be cut off from the personal relationships because government-issued phones lack any text-messaging functionalities, and the White House computer network already blocks access to websites like Gmail and Google Hangouts.

Another issue is the privacy of staffers’ personal communications. If White House staff make personal phone calls, or calls with members of the media, on their government-issued devices, the calls could be archived and made public along with the rest of the Trump White House’s communications.

At the moment, however, it is unclear whether the no-phones rule will be imposed or, if it is, whether it will apply to all staffers or just select members. Either way, it appears the White House may have more problems than just people having phones.

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*First Published: Nov 27, 2017, 3:17 pm CST