Cabbie's tweet reunites lost BlackBerry with owner

Some believe that Twitter has the power to change big events like Iranian elections. I think that its strength may be in much smaller, but still significant, ways.

In fact, I was the matchmaker recently between a Barcelona cabbie and an American employee of a pharmaceutical company. Well, a matchmaker between the cabbie and this lady's BlackBerry, anyway.

It happened like this:

I have a Twitter search in TweetDeck that alerts me every time the word "Asay" is used on Twitter. (I need to be able to track down libel somehow!)

Is this taxi a twitterer?

(Credit: CC Robertrd/Flickr)

On August 30, I saw this tweet:

Hi! I'm a taxi driver from Barcelona. Somebody knows Jennifer Asay? She works for (pharmaceutical company). I've her Balckberry [sic].

I happen to be married to a Jennifer Asay, but not this one. So I looked up her name on the Web and quickly found her on LinkedIn. I reached out to her there to give her the e-mail address of the taxi driver, which he provided in his tweet. I also replied to him to give him her e-mail address. No big deal, right?

On Wednesday, I heard back from Raúl, the taxi driver:

Hi! I am the taxidriver from Barcelona.

She has found me thanks to you.
I will be with her for I will give back its telephone.
Thank you very much by your work.

Raúl

Nice, right? It gets better. Today, I heard from Jennifer, and it sounds like everything worked out, thanks to the power of Twitter (and LinkedIn):

I can't tell you how grateful I am that you reached out to me....by a miracle, Raúl brought me my BlackBerry today!

What are the odds? In our increasingly networked world, the odds are getting shorter all the time.

Again, it's a simple story, but one rich in possibilities too. Think about it. A twittering taxi driver reaches out to the massive echo chamber that is the Web and is heard by a complete stranger in Utah who also uses Twitter (me), who then turns to LinkedIn to find the sought-for person and connects them over e-mail.

There are lots of problems in the world. Communication--at least the possibility of communication--isn't one of them.

P.S. There's a very good chance that I've now ruined Jennifer's life by getting her back in touch with her BlackBerry addiction, but I want this story to have a happy ending.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay. And if you find my iPhone, please tweet it. :-)

[michael_j_x]

Nice story. <br />I find the fact that you want to be alerted any time your name pops up on Twitter a bit disturbing. Are you so concerned as to what people have to say about you?

[ZeppelinMaker]

Makes sense to me.<br />I don't have Twitter, but I've set up a Google Alert on my name just to see if my identity is libeling people with out me.

[notmargaret]

makes sense to me too. I also have a Google Alert on my name.

[MNNice]

Wouldn't have it been easier and faster for the cabbie to simply look in Jennifer's contact list for something like "Home" or "Work" and just give them a call?

[DigitalFrog]

Not if it was locked down, all he would be able to see is the owner information screen.

[vidanuevatx]

What a tweet story.

[mbenedict]

Personally I think the incident (and this article) is frightening. <br /><br />Losing BlackBerry == now the whole world knows who Jennifer Asay is, who she works for, where she was on August 30th. What a privacy nightmare, and what other info was on her BlackBerry? What can her company's competitors deduce from her presence in Barcelona, as she's listed as "New Products Marketing Director" for cardiovascular at Aventis?<br /><br />I hope the information security team at Aventis will now take a closer look into how they configure their 'berries. A lost BlackBerry should not be accessible by taxi drivers; it should be locked by default, before being remotely wiped.

[DigitalFrog]

I think you're stretching it a bit mbenedict, and you must not be a BlackBerry user. The BlackBerry may have been locked down, but the screen display is usually set to show owner information for this very purpose. I am a BlackBerry admin and do this all the time. Also, the cabbie could have had her name from a company credit card receipt. Since Matt got her email info from Linked-In, it was info she had specifically wanted to share. <br /> <br />As for the remote wipe, that can still happen and leave the "contact if found" info on the main screen so that the device can be returned to proper owner. I think this was a nice article on the positive use of the internet global community, and gives hope that there's still nice guys out there both on the net and driving the cabs. Thanks Matt!

[mbenedict]

Displaying name and company info on locked a BlackBerry device is a dumb info security practice. Why not just display a sign in flashing neon stating: "Steal me, please!!" Dumb dumb dumb.<br /><br />If a device is lost, just remote-wipe it and issue a new one. For crying out loud, Aventis has yearly revenues in the 30 billion Euro range; it's not like they can't afford to buy one new BlackBerry for one of its directors. Don't advertise what's inside your mobile devices in hopes that some random Taxi driver in Barcelona will tweet about it and prove to the world just how incompetent your info security team is. <br /><br />I hope DigitalFrog isn't a "BlackBerry admin" for any of my clients.

[DigitalFrog]

mbenedict - your comments again lead me to think you are only in the periphery of this business at best and forum trolling at worst. Name and company on a blackberry is not going to attract or detract theft, do you really think they're going to stop and read the screen before deciding to steal it? When I lock the device down, it just displays the company name and a toll free number they can call to arrange it's return - which has worked for us just this summer by the way. As to simply writing off the cost, it is still a cost ( I hope you do not work for my insurance company or account for any of my tax dollars) and in this case could have left the person stranded without blackberry use until they returned to their home office or had one shipped to them.

[mbenedict]

I'll say it again: dumb dumb dumb practice.<br /><br />A thief getting hold of an unmarked BB will just wipe it clean then try to unload it.<br /><br />But a BB with a flashing neon sign stating "This unit belongs to Jen, AVENTIS Marketing Director -- you know, info of how we're going to market a few billion euros worth of unannounced drugs inside" might just find its way to a very sophisticated cracking team.<br /><br />We already see corporate and government espionage teams stealing BB devices; they are not immune to tampering.<br /><br />Go talk to your info security team. They'll tell you how dumb this practice is. Oh let me guess, you don't have an info security team where you work...

[lxnder]

Matt:<br /><br />Far more likely than your parenthetical explanation which appears to ascribe your obsessive netstalking tendencies to personal concerns of "libel," your marriage is on the rocks. You've taken your marital insecurities public with this one, and frankly, we are disgusted with the sort of misogyny you publicize here. It's not OK.<br /><br />How funny -- and oh-so-coincidental -- that this incident revolved around your wife's EXACT name, in spite of your claim to a broad search for your surname alone. Were that true, you'd be receiving alerts every time someone inadvertently typed an 'a' before 'say,' which appears to happen quite frequently; http://twitter.com/#search?q=asay<br /><br />It's glaringly obvious what you're up to: netstalking the woman who has entrusted her life to you, her husband. Find yourself an IRL therapist (no, not another DIY self-help quackery blog; those haven't helped) before your obsessive behavior turns violent. This is sick.