Though the entire country would probably like to peek at President-Elect Obama’s cell phone given the chance, a handful of Verizon employees actually took advantage of their jobs to do it, and may lose them as a result. Last week, Verizon announced that it had placed a number of employees on leave after confirming that they had snooped into call records on one of Obama’s old cell phones.
Obama is well known for carrying a BlackBerry, but the account the Verizon employees access was actually deactivated months ago and tied to an old flip phone. Since it didn’t have data or e-mail capabilities, the crew weren’t able to see the content of the future President’s conversations – only call records.
For its part, Verizon has placed the suspect employees on leave with pay until they further investigate the situation. “As the circumstances of each individual employee’s access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement. “Employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action.”
