Governments, Technology, and Privacy

Two interesting pieces in the New York Times today. Eric Lichtblau writes about increasing government requests to cell phone carriers for subscriber information in the past year. Cell phone providers say that law enforcement agencies made 1.3 million such requests last year, not all accompanied by warrants. In another article, Mr. Lichtblau and Scott Shane write about the FDA's interception of emails, letters, and other material sent by its own employees to media, members of Congress, and others, including the President. The agency was apparently trying to tamp down criticism of its performance and decisions to approve certain medical devices. Some of the scientists critical of the agency were fired and are now suing.