A legal battle between the FDA and dismissed employees is making its way through the courts and various government bodies. The FDA admitted to monitoring every keystroke made by five employees and to capturing all the data stored on their computers and USB sticks and to monitoring all e-mails sent and received on their computers whether using government or personal accounts. The software also took screenshots of their computer monitors every five seconds. The captured information included messages sent to the government’s Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistle-blower complaints and is meant to protect whistle-blowers from retaliation.
While this case (the dismissed scientists are suing the FDA) is complicated, it does raise increasingly prevalent question regarding the rights of free speech and association, guaranteed under the fourth amendment. The NSA data center now going up in the deserts of Utah extends the reach of the government’s surveillance operations. Watergate was surely for amateurs.
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