Six former employees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have brought a business fraud lawsuit against the agency, alleging that it illegally spied on and gathered data from their personal email accounts that was eventually used to dismiss them.
According to The Washington Post, the FDA monitored the personal Gmail accounts of six employees who logged in using government computers for two years. The monitoring began in January 2009 when the agency noticed communications between the employees and congressional staffers that included draft versions of whistleblower complaints that alleged the FDA was approving unsafe medical devices.
The agency made copies of the documents and attempted to get the employees fired for sharing information. Once the HHS Inspector General’s office declined to investigate, the FDA allegedly compiled even more evidence from the email accounts and unsuccessfully appealed.
In their surveillance lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue that the government violated their constitutional rights by monitoring their private emails for activity that was legal.
“Who would have thought that they would have the nerve to be monitoring my communications to Congress?” said Robert C. Smith, one of the plaintiffs in the suit who worked as a device reviewer at the FDA until his contract was not renewed following the ordeal, according to the Post. “How dare they?”
The FDA claims that warnings posted on computers tell users who log on that they should have “no reasonable expectation of privacy” in any data that is used or stored on the computer, and that the government may intercept data for a lawful government purpose.
If you have illegally had the security of your personal information compromised, contact Sokolove Law today for a free legal consultation.