privacy law

Verizon Wireless has apologized to President-Elect Barack Obama after several employees took a peek at his cell-phone records, but privacy advocates say what happened to Obama is just an example of what is happening to thousands of Americans.

Verizon, which has 71,000 employees nationwide, said it learned last week about the access. Obama's device was a basic flip phone and did not include e-mail or other features. The account had been inactive for several months.

Verizon Wireless has apologized to President-Elect Barack Obama after several employees took a peek at his cell-phone records, but privacy advocates say what happened to Obama is just an example of what is happening to thousands of Americans.

Verizon, which has 71,000 employees nationwide, said it learned last week about the access. Obama's device was a basic flip phone and did not include e-mail or other features. The account had been inactive for several months.

When Google began hiring in Zurich for its new engineering center in 2004, local officials welcomed the U.S. company with open arms. Google's arrival is still bearing fruit for Zurich: 450 employees, about 300 of them engineers, work in Google's seven-story complex in a converted brewery on the outskirts of the placid mountain metropolis.