Selfie sticks and government emails

THE pope is going to visit the United States next week. There will be tight security, as usual, and people will be searched and frisked so that they won’t be able to bring banned items near the pope. Among these are explosives, firearms, ammunition and even toy guns.

One thing that is not allowed, in various early warnings that were sent out, are selfie sticks. Their security measures are worse than ours--the Secret Service warned that “surrendered items will not be returned, or available for pick up”.

So that probably means having a selfie camera op with the pope is out of the question.

The Smithsonian bans selfie sticks in their museums, and Disney disallows its use on their rides, calling them a health or security hazard.

There have been numerous reports about people getting killed or injured because of selfies. Recently, a 19-year-old man in Houston reportedly died when his gun accidentally went off and he shot himself while taking a selfie with a gun. This has also reportedly happened to a 22-year-old Mexican man, and a woman from Russia.

Technology creates a lot of new opportunities, but presents new problems.

Social media has been credited for bringing people closer, and it has also resulted in bringing people apart. Many people got married because they got to know each other through social media, and many flings, and divorces resulted from social media as well.

Sometimes, problems ensue because of certain concerns. The leading presidential candidate for US president is Hillary Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton. Suddenly, she was dogged by a lot of controversies when it was discovered she set up her own private mail server while she was secretary of state, and did not use the official government email services. There were allegations that she was exposing herself to unnecessary leaks, or she might have deleted emails or forwarded emails that were sensitive to the state.

So apparently, in the United States, it is important that their government officials have secure emails that would not be hacked and would be carefully monitored. What about the Philippines? Almost everybody in government I know uses free email systems provided by Yahoo, Google or Outlook. These emails are hosted in the United states, and I guess can be snooped on. Should government consider whether this also represents a security issue for us here?

There have been numerous reports about people getting killed or injured because of selfies.