Agencies are twice as likely to claim personal privacy in 2002 than in 1998 to justify denials of Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests. In 1998, just under 40 percent of FOIA denials were for personal privacy; in 2002, roughly 80 percent of denials were for privacy. Surprisingly, agencies use national security to explain refusals less often than they did several years ago. That’s the conclusion of an analysis by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press that compared agencies’ annual reports on compliance with the federal open records law for 1998 and 2002.

Reuters is reporting that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to release deficit projections tomorrow showing deficits reaching approximately $500 billion for fiscal year 2004. In addition, the CBO's report will also contain 10-year budget forecasts, unlike the Administration's official numbers released through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which only have a five-year horizon. These longer-range forecasts are expected to show significant long-run damage to the budget outlook.

After serving a 16-month sentence for exposing an email vulnerability to his company’s customers, Bret McDanel is appealing his conviction in an effort to clear his name and send a message that discussing flaws and vulnerabilities is acceptable. While working for Tornado Development, McDanel discovered the email flaw and reported it to the company. Six months after severing his employment with Tornado, McDanel discovered that the company had never fixed the vulnerability. McDanel then informed each email user of the Tornado system of the vulnerability in an email from “Secret Squirrel.”

If you know of organzations experiencing the problems outlined in this article or other types of actions taken by the government to control nonprofit speech please send a message to Kay Guinane at kguinane@ombwatch.org