Supreme Court takes up privacy sexting case

Rightardia would be surprised if the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the policeman who was using a police cell phone to text sexually explicit messages (sexting) to his girl friend.

It is unlikely the policeman or a corporate employee who is using a device provided by the government or a corporation has a right to privacy. Most corporations have explicitly written procedures stating that the use of cell phones and laptops is for 'official purposes only.'

The policeman should have used a private cell phone for texting during a a lunch break or after he was off duty.

Wirehead, out technical editor, has managed a Blackberry server and he could read all of the email that was sent or received through the server. He would also constantly check the server to make sure the server it was working and that users were able to send and receive emial and text messages.

Most text messages go through a server. However, Rightardia recently read a news story about Florida public service employees who were recieving peer to peer text messages from public utility employees.

All the public service employe had to do was provide the utility company the Blackberry's PIN. This means of texting bypasses the government Blackberry servers.

The downside is the message is clear text and it can be read by anyone who intrecepts it.

The procedure for sending peer to peer messages with a Blackberry is as follows: 


Each BlackBerry device is assigned a unique eight-digit number called a personal identification number (PIN). You can find your BlackBerry's PIN by selecting the Options icon, then clicking Status. Your PIN will appear in the Status screen.

Sending a PIN message:

There are two ways to send messages directly to a BlackBerry user's PIN rather than to the user's email address, depending on whether you have the PIN stored in a contact in your address book or not.

If you have a contact in your address book with the PIN entered, you can select the PIN using the Compose application.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the Compose icon (the open envelope and pencil).
2. In the "To:" list, scroll to the correct contact. Click the trackwheel to display a drop-down menu for the contact.
3. If you have stored a PIN for this contact, PIN will appear in the menu. Select it. 4. Compose your message and send it as usual. When the message is sent, it will be routed using the PIN rather than the email address. Note: The next time you select that contact with the Enter key, the PIN will be used rather than the email address.

To reset the contact to use an email address, simply follow the directions listed above and select Email rather than PIN from the menu.

If you want to enter a PIN not associated with a contact, you can type the PIN directly into the "To:" field.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the Compose icon (the open envelope and pencil).
2. Scroll up to [Use Once] at the top of the "To:" list. Click the trackwheel to display a drop-down menu.
3. From the menu, select PIN. Enter the PIN and press Enter.
4. Compose your message and send it as usual.

Note: PIN to PIN messages are not encrypted and transmit in plaintext, allowing anyone who intercepts them to read them. While this is a remote possibility, you should keep it in mind and not send sensitive information in a PIN to PIN message.

Rightardia also points out that if Tiger Wood's had used the peer to peer sexting, his wife would have had a hard time catching him! 

Our thanks to Hayden, Stack Admin for this information: See http://forums.pinstack.com/f231/all_about_blackberry_pin_peer_to_peer_messaging-56/

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