Secret Email Gone Viral

Recently, newspapers have exposed that secretary of state Hillary Clinton has a private email which she has been using for her work--government work. Federal officials are supposed to use emails that are given to them, ending in ".gov", so that the government can see their activity. This information has led to questions about whether or not it is okay for government officials to have their own email, and if they should be allowed to use it for their work.

According to the NY Times, Clinton released over 55,000 pages worth of information obtained from her email. The problem, however, is that she could have deleted important information or anything she wanted to hide. Since she was the one to release certain emails, she obviously chose what to expose to the media and what to keep for herself. A personal email lets her delete certain emails as well, without the government having access to all of her emails. It's also a little dangerous to her because hackers and spies could have easily gotten into her private email, while government's emails are heavily guarded and very secure. This raises the question, should she have been able to have her own private email?

I see both sides of the argument. I realize that it was against government policy, and that it makes her seem a little more shady, but I also think she should be able to have her own email for personal information. In my opinion, even government officials should be able to have a private life separate from their work and what the media sees. I can see why she would want her own email, but I think I don't think she should have used it for her work. If she had just used her personal email for family and friends, I don't think that would have been a problem. Since she was using it for government work, however, I can see why this raises concerns about her privacy. Also, the number of pages of emails she submitted is a little surprising to me; it seems like a lot of information, which means she used that email for a lot of her work. I think this may hinder her campaign at running for president in the next presidental election, because enemies will use it to their advantage and some may not trust her. Overall, I think it was a mistake to have one and use it for her job, when it's clear that most government officals did not.