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Secret Monitoring: FDA Staffers Sue Agency Over Surveillance Of Personal E-mail

Posted: 01/30/12 03:32 AM ET  |  Updated: 01/30/12 03:32 AM ET

The Washington Post:

The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that posed unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show.

Read the whole story at The Washington Post

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12:53 AM on 01/31/2012
And our Government monies are being spent to employ this idiot? Donald Trump, FIRE this idiot and tell him to send personal email on his own computer and on his own time.
04:58 PM on 01/30/2012
Fair Notice; Whistle blowers, don't use the bosses Computer to acces your Email , Duuuh !!!
Go home and use YOUR laptop in your den...
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Cynth
[Your ad here.]
04:46 PM on 01/30/2012
For people who are saying that these employees should not expect privacy on the employer's computers, there is more to this story than that. These employees were at work accessing work files and were working as whistle blowers. I don't know the answer to this, but we need to consider that perhaps these employees could not take the files out of their offices. Also, we do know that Congressional staffers gave them assurances that their contact with members of Congress was legal and that the HHS Inspector General twice decided not to prosecute the employees for this (the last time having consulted with federal prosecutors), despite FDA push-back.

It seems that the FDA is simply going after whistle blowers in an attempt to intimidate and punish them, as well as send a signal to potential whistle blowers. These scientists and doctors had legitimate concerns and they sought help from Congress, the White House, and the HHS Inspector General. It is shameful that the FDA has created an environment where the welfare of consumers is secondary to the interests of industry, and that they saw fit to bully the staff.

I hope these brave public servants come through this shining and with their heads held high. Shame on the FDA and an overhaul of the agency can't come a day too soon.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Bradley Scott Roon
not left or right: think for yourself
02:26 PM on 01/30/2012
Proven unhealthy, proven toxic in most cases, and the toxins used to support this system are literally bringing American Ag to the verge of collapse with literally the worst Ag soil in the world being GMO crop soils, the SDS epidemics killing huge amounts of GMO crops and the animals which eat them. In fact some dairy herds are barely able to keep their herd size up. If the SDS increases, they won't. More cost as smaller supplies are tied to existing levels of demand. But that ignores the neurotoxic effects, the increased cancers, the mutations in human and other fetuses, the disruption of the endocrine system and resulting hormone hell, the continued attack on our oceanic oxygen supply as glyphosate kills this. (we're already missing over 1/3 the oxygen we should have.
Kill the FDA, or at least imprison the industry representatives in the FDA and USDA along w/Monsanto, DuPont, Archers Daniel Midland, and other GMO manufacturers. While we're at it, the board members of the people approving organic standards who allowed a genetically modified, chemically extracted fake ALA to be put into "organic" baby formula. The intent here is to undermine faith in organic and natural products so that these can be minimized or destroyed and the drug pushers and Ag monsters can totally take over those billions of dollars in market share with the disappearance of the health food and associated industries.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
sensimilla
You are not your body
03:50 PM on 01/30/2012
um...wrong article???
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Bradley Scott Roon
not left or right: think for yourself
10:11 AM on 01/31/2012
Sorry, my hot button. The GMOs that the FDA has allowed/approved are possibly more fatal to planetary survival than setting off all the nukes. I'd stated an opinion that a person should be able to do personal email during breaks or lunch, but implied that as a general rule the FDA management is totally corrupt. There are scientists frequently stating that they need to see better test data, or recommending that drugs do not get approved without other studies, and the management - a wholly owned subsidiary of the drug pushers (pharm) - says, let it sail.
The destruction of our health, and the policies of the FDA which in some instances literally kill people, are in my opinion, our core liberty being stolen, and this fries me no end. If you cannot make the choice of which modality to treat your body, what significant freedom do you really have? They don't care if we scream about political and economic injustice as long as we don't get smart and force GMO labeling and really change our "health care system" into something that actually functions well and really supplies health instead of unlimited income to sociopaths in charge of corpseorations. Most people don't know that unless they are eating totally organic and non CFAO meats, they are forced to consume GMOs, and that these are proven toxic
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Liteworkr
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it
12:53 PM on 01/30/2012
Another story of smart people who have no common sense.

The equipment, the email system, and the time all belong to the employer. There is no right to privacy. None.

Get indignant all you want, but there is simply no reason to expect that such emails are private.
imnofred
Dear Mr. Fantasy, Play us a tune...
12:42 PM on 01/30/2012
A lot of companies have Acceptable Use Policies that prohibit personal use of work computers. This includes e-mail. I suspect that the FDA has Acceptable Use Policies in place. If they do, they have every right to monitor e-mails.

Besides that, if you work for the government, you should assume that your computer usage can and will be monitored. How hard is it to send personal e-mails from you own Blackberry or from a laptop?
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Cynth
[Your ad here.]
04:52 PM on 01/30/2012
They were acting as whistle blowers and sharing information from the FDA with Congress, which they had been assured was perfectly legal and protected by law. We don't know if they would have been able to access those documents off-site and if it would have been legal. They have been targeted by the FDA ever since, but the HHS Inspector General has twice decline to go after the staffers.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
FDRbyGodDemocrat
Liberal, nerdy, and festively plump.
03:36 PM on 01/31/2012
Regardless of how well-intentioned their motives were, they still had no expectation of privacy. The government may have been wrong to fire them as whistleblowers, but the manner in which they chose to communicate the information opened them up to punishment. How scientists did not realize this fact is a little surprising to me. Have they never heard of a smart phone?
12:29 PM on 01/30/2012
they are government computers....no expectation of, privacy........nothing to see here move on.
cabinetmaker
made in USA
12:26 PM on 01/30/2012
were they on a computer owned by "we the people"?

were they on time being paid for by "we the people"?

were they on an account owned by "we the people"?

if yes to any question, then yes to "we the people" have a right to see
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Cynth
[Your ad here.]
04:50 PM on 01/30/2012
They were acting in the best interest of "we the people" when they were using their email accounts to contact members of Congress about questionable medical device approvals. The FDA has been trying to punish them for it, even though Congressional staffers have told the scientists and doctors that what they did is protected under the law.
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Liteworkr
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it
12:22 PM on 01/30/2012
One more reason to vote Ron Paul.
Abolish the FDA. Its owned by Monsanto and Big Pharma anyway.
They do guns drawn raids on organic farmers and Raw milk producers.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
sensimilla
You are not your body
03:52 PM on 01/30/2012
how about we keep the fda, and other regulatory agencies, give them some teeth and outlaw lobbyists and industry insiders?
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Liteworkr
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it
11:09 AM on 01/31/2012
That would be ok I guess if our country was not broke.
12:19 PM on 01/30/2012
I'm tired of Gmail sending me ads based on things mentioned in private emails.

Eventually we all will either just accept this or vote with our feet and put a stop to it. I'm now using Gmail for junk mail.
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Cory111
Life is good...
11:50 AM on 01/30/2012
Seems to me you get paid to do your job, you can email all you want on your own time.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Cynth
[Your ad here.]
04:48 PM on 01/30/2012
They were using their personal email to alert Congress and the White House of questionable device approvals. They were acting as whistle blowers. We also don't know if it would have been legal to access the material in question from non-work computers.
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Cory111
Life is good...
05:31 PM on 01/30/2012
I’m not one for ease dropping and all for whistle blowers.

- They were using their personal email-

In other words they had brought their “personal” computer to work? If that were the case unless they were using the companies Wi-Fi there would have been no way to trace the email. If they were using the company’s computer and routing over to their email provider then the company has grounds.
I have a family member that was sending out email after email to family and friends everyday, 99% were FWD’s. She was told to knock it off, no more email and get back to work.
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VoteObama2012
Are YOU in?
11:26 AM on 01/30/2012
I thought direct reports to federal agencies were covered under whistle blower laws.
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alan2a
Actual Progressive
11:16 AM on 01/30/2012
Further proof of the complete bankruptcy of the Obama Administration. They remain the proud owners of the record for going after the good guy whistle blowers than any President in history. That a Democratic President and his Administration which ran on a platform of transparency and protecting whistle blowers has this kind of record, along with its record on immigration deportations, drone killings, expansion of domestic surveillance, conducting secret wars, raiding peace activists, etc., etc., puts the lie to the phony new found populism as well as the shame of progressive and democratic voters lack of condemnation for this kind of record particularly given that the reality is that if this was say the Bush record they'd be howling bloody murder. Instead there is deafening silence.
11:36 AM on 01/30/2012
You're a hoot! I don't usually laugh so hard this early in the morning. Thanks.
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alan2a
Actual Progressive
05:06 PM on 01/30/2012
pitiful
12:27 PM on 01/30/2012
you are ignoring the fact that there are a lot of holdovers from the last administration burrowed deep into these agencies, meanwhile Obama is still trying to get appointments for agencies approved. the 4th reich will not go down easy.
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alan2a
Actual Progressive
05:07 PM on 01/30/2012
which has been replaced by the 5th
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dtmfman
2 most common elements...Hydrogen and Stupidity
10:56 AM on 01/30/2012
ANYONE of the "higher ups" who had anything to do with this "intimidation" of employees...should be subject to personal civil and criminal prosecution...and the agency should be reprimanded and the chain of command that initiated/allowed this debacle should all be fired immediately!
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Cynth
[Your ad here.]
04:54 PM on 01/30/2012
Exactly. This is nothing but intimidation and an attempt to punish the staff. Fanned for this and your micro-bio!