Outsmarting the smartphone

Smartphones may be a boon for reporters in search of story breaks but for government officials, they have become a bane. So much so that there are bureaucrats who agree to meet reporters only after making sure that the conversation is not being recorded. They are even suspicious when a reporter presses a few keys on the handset to put it on silent mode or to receive a text message. There are others who formally call press briefings but don’t allow them to be captured on camera or a recorder. Naturally, it gives them the advantage of backtracking from their statement in case it backfires.