DOJ Agrees To Hand Over Document To EPIC, But Only Because The Document Has Already Been Made Public

from the damn-foreigners dept

EPIC is reporting that the DOJ has finally caved and is handing over a document it requested last fall. The document EPIC sought was the "Umbrella Agreement" between the US and Europe on the handling of each entities' citizens' data.

On September 8, 2015, European and US officials announced that they have concluded an agreement, the so-called Umbrella Agreement, which is a framework for transatlantic data transfer between the US and the EU. The proposed goal of the Agreement is to provide data protection safeguards for personal information transferred between the EU and the US. Despite the announcements, neither US officials nor their European counterparts made the text of the Agreement public.
Two days after this announcement, EPIC filed expedited FOIA requests on both sides of the pond for the text of this agreement, arguing (logically) that the people this would affect had a right to know what their governments were agreeing to. EPIC specifically had concerns that the US would offer less protection to foreign citizens' data than to its own citizens, given that it has historically refused to extend these niceties to those residing elsewhere on the planet.

The DOJ has provided EPIC with a copy of the agreement. In doing so, it hopes to bring to an end EPIC's FOIA lawsuit against the agency. But the DOJ notes in the letter attached to the agreement that it's only doing so in the most begrudging fashion. If only its partners on the other side of the Atlantic hadn't blinked first…
After carefully reviewing the record responsive to your request, I have determined that, as a matter of discretion, this document may be released in full. While this record is likely subject to Exemption 5, which concerns certain inter- and intra-agency communications protected by the deliberative process privilege, given the fact that the European Commission has provided you with a copy of the record and is making the file publicly available on its website, I have determined to release the record as a matter of discretion.
That's the "most transparent administration" at work. The European Parliament released the agreement on September 14, 2015 -- six days after the announcement. The DOJ, on the other hand, held out for nearly six months and is only releasing it because it's already in the public domain. And it's arguing that it should still be exempt as a "deliberative document" -- using the government's most-abused FOIA exemption -- even when another, larger government agency has determined the document deserves no such protection.

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: data sharing, doj, eu, privacy, surveillance, umbrella agreement, us
Companies: epic


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2016 @ 1:40pm

    The context in that they are the "most transparent administration" is that they are the most transparent with the open contempt they have for citizens constitutional rights, contempt of democratic government, and contempt for accountability.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2016 @ 2:17pm

      Re:

      So we have the most contemptible Government in US History. Ran by a black democrat... yep... sounds damn racist... too bad it is fucking true as well.

      To be the first yet also the worst!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Wendy Cockcroft, 1 Feb 2016 @ 5:57am

        Re: Re:

        So why doesn't white-dominated Congress do something about it?!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2016 @ 7:44am

    Most transparent administration because we can see through all their scheming, bribery taking and lies?

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.