stories filed under: "freedom of information"

New York City Freedom Of Information Requests Fail Miserably

from the doesn't-Bloomberg-own-an-information-company dept

Mon, Jul 18th 2011 10:06pm — Mike Masnick

Interesting timing on this one. As you may recall, back in May we filed three Freedom of Information requests, two with NYC and one with Homeland Security's ICE division. To date, we've only received one complete response, from NYC telling us that they didn't have the documents in question -- which actually revealed some interesting info about how Homeland Security was posting NBC propaganda as if it were done by itself.

However, we're still waiting on the other two. ICE has said that they're still processing our request (though I believe it's now past the legal limit to do so). Similarly, NYC is way past due in fulfilling our request under NYC's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

It turns out that this is par for the course for New York City. Reader Stephen points us to a report that says that, even though Mayor Bloomberg has promised to be much more transparent, the city government regularly witholds information or ignores requests altogether, according to amNewYork. The NY Times has even sued the city over this. amNewYork ran some tests itself, sending out 38 requests, and detailing the responses. Here are a few of the lowlights from NYC:

Eight agencies failed to respond within the five-business-day deadline they are given to make the information available, deny the request with a reason, or provide an approximate date when the documents will be ready.

Some agencies expressed disdain for answering queries. Concerning a related question on FOIL requests, a city Housing Preservation and Development staffer wrote in an email to a records officer that �this is the kind of crap I have no patience for.� Incidentally, HPD was the fastest agency to respond to amNY�s initial FOIL request, taking two days.

The report has a lot more information and details, but it sounds like folks working for the NYC government really just don't care and so they don't really follow the law.

Filed Under: dhs, foia, freedom of information, new york city

38 Comments

Once Again, The Freedom Of Information Act Is Proving To Be Just That: An Act

Politics

from the freedom's-just-another-word-for-[REDACTED] dept

Mon, Jun 13th 2011 9:44am — Tim Cushing

Once the word got out that a photo had been taken of Osama Bin Laden, for identification purposes, everyone and their journalistic mother filed a FOIA request to see the pictures. And as has sadly become par for the course, these requests are being stonewalled by the administration, which has apparently learned nothing from the DHS vs. "activist groups" debacle.

Sadly, this is no ordinary stonewalling. In direct violation of the FOIA terms, it looks as if these requests are being handled by Robert Gates and his staff, rather than the non-partisan FOIA employees who are supposed to be handling them, according to this official response from the Department of Defense:

The Office of the Secretary of Defense/Joint Staff FOIA Office is responding on behalf of the entire Department of Defense to all FOIA requests within the DoD for information related to the operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. Therefore, they will respond directly to you concerning the FOIA request that you sent us.

The wording of this response certainly suggests that these OBL requests are being handled higher up, as non-partisan employees would be hard pressed to satisfy the requirements of their job and the administration's desire to keep the photos classified. Fortunately for them, their responsibility seems to have been relieved by an appointed member of President Obama's staff and the spectre of "threat to national security" duly summoned in order to wave off any inconvenient demands.

Of course, should this "threatening" photo ever make it out of its governmental quarantine, it will probably end up being 3/4 redacted and 1/4 thumb. Even so, would it kill these agencies to at least pretend they care about the rules that are supposed to govern their actions, much less the transparency that was promised so often over the past few years.

Filed Under: defense department, foia, freedom of information, homeland security

75 Comments

Homeland Security Appears To Be Stalling On FOIA Requests Concerning Domain Seizures

Politics

from the violating-the-foia? dept

Tue, Jun 7th 2011 12:38pm — Mike Masnick

We're still waiting for the full response to our own Freedom of Information Act request concerning ICE's PSA (though, we have some more info on that which we'll be sharing soon). It's still well within the reasonable period of time to reply, and we've been told that progress is being made on the request, so that all sounds good. However, Michael Robertson passed along the news that back in January, he filed a FOIA request of his own, on behalf of his organization NakedGovernment.org, seeking any information and documents within ICE concerning the domain seizures found in "Operation in Our Sites."

Initially, as is fairly typical with FOIA requests, the ICE FOIA officials were responsive, friendly and helpful. Following a rather broad request, the FOIA official at ICE suggested that NakedGovernment narrow its request to documents concerning the domain seizures that are stored in the TECS (Treasury Enforcement Communications System) database. NakedGovernment also forked over the cash that ICE requested in order to conduct this search. At the end of March, ICE FOIA officials told NakedGovernment that they had received the check and "will begin processing your request and will respond..."

And that's all they wrote. Since the end of March, no additional response has been forthcoming, even though NakedGovernment has followed up with ICE requesting the status of the request. It's difficult to see how this request could possibly take more than two months to process. I'm hopeful that my (quite narrow) request won't take nearly as long. Update: Michael Robertson informs me that ICE has just indicated that it has obtained the documents in question, and they now need to "be processed" which will then be followed by a "supervisory review." So, keep waiting...

Filed Under: domain seizures, foia, freedom of information, michael robertson

32 Comments

FOIA Request Unveils Secret CIA-Produced Documentary About CIA Agents Captured & Held In China For Decades

Culture

from the what's-the-copyright-status? dept

Fri, Jun 3rd 2011 3:23pm — Mike Masnick

This is fascinating. Apparently, a US plane with CIA agents on board flew into China in 1952, trying to recover a spy in that country. However, the plane went down, and the Chinese captured the two CIA agents who survived the crash... and then kept them until 1971 and 1973. That, in itself, is an interesting story. But making it even more interesting is that the CIA had a professional documentary made about the story (including reenactments), intended for internal audiences within the CIA. Yet, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press, the CIA is now planning to release the entire (short) movie on YouTube. Of course, as a work created by the government, it should be in the public domain, though I'm curious to see if that's officially acknowledged anywhere.

Filed Under: cia, documentary, freedom of information

13 Comments

DHS's ICE Group Accused Of Lying To Court About Expense Of Complying With FOI Request

Failures

from the but-of-course dept

Thu, May 19th 2011 11:19am — Mike Masnick

Having just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request concerning documents from Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division, you can bet that it caught my attention that ICE is now being accused of lying to a court in claiming massive expenses to comply with a FOIA request for metadata on documents. After some back and forth, a court had ordered ICE to provide the specific data under the FOIA. ICE told the court that it was using a product from a company called Clearwell, but that it ran into technical and monetary hurdles, including having to spend $270,000 in upgrades, and also that it had to suspend security protocols to run the applications.

Apparently, Clearwell's competitors have been having a field day with this, using the filing by the government to bash Clearwell's product, so the company put out a blog post that claims ICE was basically lying to the court:

Neither OPLA nor any other part of ICE paid a dime for upgrades or a new server. In reality, its use of the product for this matter is covered under ICE�s existing license, and we provided an extra server and services for free to help them meet a tight deadline. . . .

In 16 working days, Clearwell was used to process a large volume of information and produce nearly 15,000 pages of Opt-Out Records . . . To help ICE meet its deadline, two Clearwell consultants worked onsite during this period � at absolutely no cost to ICE.

Apparently, it's not a good idea to use such things as an excuse when the company you're claiming was the problem has the ability to speak up itself. Of course, my request isn't for any metadata, so hopefully they can avoid having to spend $270,000 to find the few documents I requested.

Filed Under: foia, freedom of information, homeland security, ice

27 Comments

Techdirt Files FOIA Requests Concerning ICE 'Anti-Piracy' Videos

Politics

from the digging-in dept

Mon, May 16th 2011 12:50pm — Mike Masnick

Earlier today, I filed three Freedom of Information requests concerning the infamous "anti-piracy PSA" that Homeland Security's ICE division started placing on domains it seized. As we noted at the time, the videos were not new and not created by ICE. Instead, they were part of a campaign put together by New York City with the help of NBC Universal and the MPAA. The scripts of the videos were misleading, and I was troubled by the idea that the federal government would be playing corporately produced and funded propaganda, with the imprimatur of the Department of Homeland Security. I asked a series of friendly (non-aggressive) questions to Brian Hale, officially the spokesperson for ICE within the Department of Homeland Security about where they got the video and how much was paid for it. Hale and Homeland Security apparently decided not to comment at all, despite multiple email requests.

Separately, I made requests to the City of New York, to get their side of the story, but after being asked who I was reporting for, what "the nature" of my story was and who else I was talking to (all of which I answered honestly), I received no further response from the City of New York.

Thus, the three Freedom of Information requests -- filed using the new system from MuckRock.com, an open government tool that seeks to publish documents retrieved via such requests and which recently built a tool to make it easier to make such requests (which I'm now testing) -- are as follows:

A FOIA request to the Department of Homeland Security, concerning the details of any licensing agreement with the City of New York or with NBC Universal directly.
A request under NY State's Freedom of Information Law concerning details of any licensing agreement with Homeland Security concerning the same videos.
Separately, a second request to NYC, concerning communications between the Mayor's Office and NBC Universal or the MPAA concerning the details behind those videos as well

The NY State law says that the city must respond to my request within five business days. DHS has a longer period of time to respond. Honestly, it's silly that I had to file such requests. Homeland Security could have easily cleared this up weeks ago by answering my simple questions concerning how the federal government licensed this video. The fact that it has refused to do so necessitated this formal approach, unfortunately.

Filed Under: dhs, foia, freedom of information, new york city
Companies: mpaa, nbc universal

74 Comments

Court Slams FBI For Saying It's Okay For The Federal Government To Lie To A Court

Legal Issues

from the who-watches-the-watchers? dept

Fri, May 6th 2011 12:12pm — Mike Masnick

A few months back, we pointed out how the EFF had discovered that the FBI was extremely arbitrary in how it redacted information on Freedom of Information Act requests. There are specific rules about what should be redacted and what should be allowed. However, the EFF received the same documents from separate requests, and found totally different sections redacted. Not only did this suggest how arbitrary the process was, it also allowed them to see some of what was redacted in the "other" document -- and discover that it never should have been redacted.

Now, the EFF is pointing to a recent ruling that shows the FBI apparently feels it's free to go much further than just arbitrary redacting. In a different case, a district court has slammed the FBI for both lying about what records it actually had in response to an FOIA request by pretending certain records did not exist (even though they did) and then redacting portions of the document, claiming that they were outside the scope of the request... when they were not. The court is clearly not pleased. It also did not buy the government's silly claim that revealing that the FBI lied would be a threat to national security or that it's fine for the federal government to simply lie to a court, in the name of "national security."

After court ordered the FBI to submit full versions of the records in camera, along with a new declaration about the agency�s search, the FBI revealed for the first time that it had materially and fundamentally mislead the court in its earlier filings. The unaltered versions of the documents showed that the information the agency had withheld as �outside the scope� was actually well within the scope of the plaintiffs� FOIA request. The government also admitted it had a large number of additional responsive documents that it hadn�t told the plaintiffs or the court about. Id. at 7-8.

If these revelations weren�t bad enough, the FBI also argued FOIA allows it to mislead the court where it believes revealing information would �compromise national security.� Id. at 9. The FBI also argued, that �its initial representations to the Court were not technically false� because although the information might have been �factually� responsive to the plaintiffs� FOIA request, it was �legally nonresponsive.� Id. at 9, n. 4 (emphasis added).

The court noted, this �argument is indefensible,� id. at 9-10, and held, �the FOIA does not permit the government to withhold responsive information from the court.�

It really does seem like our federal government tends to believe that there should be no oversight of it at all. It's almost as if they feel that the basic principles of checks & balances within the government is a nuisance which it can ignore.

Filed Under: fbi, foia, freedom of information, lies

Michigan State Police Say It'll Cost $545k To Discover What Info It's Copying Off Mobile Phones During Traffic Stops [Updated]

Privacy

from the that-sounds-like-extortion dept

Wed, Apr 20th 2011 10:44am — Mike Masnick

Apparently, the state police in Michigan are using devices that allow them to slurp all sorts of data off your mobile phone. Various courts over the years have taken up the question of whether or not it's okay for police to search your mobile phone during a traffic stop without a warrant, and the rulings are quite mixed. What is allowed is for police to search through your physical belongings, but "digital" belongings is a bit more of a gray area, and it seems to depend on the court. Most recently, the California Supreme Court said that such searches are fine.

The reason many of us are troubled by this is that, like laptops, the contents on your mobile phone are both a lot more expansive these days than, say, a bag you're carrying -- and can be a lot more private. So it's a bit troubling that at least some courts have said there's really no difference between searching a bag that you're holding and the full contents of your mobile phone at a traffic stop.

The situation in Michigan is potentially more troubling, because the police are apparently using technology that lets them gather all sorts of info off your phone quite quickly -- and can even get around some password protections:

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

It's not at all clear if the police in Michigan are using the full extent of these tools, and that's what the ACLU was curious about. So, it filed a Freedom of Information Act request on the matter... and was told that it would cost $544,680 to get that information. That doesn't sound like "freedom" of information, now does it? While the folks over at Techland suggest a Kickstarter project, I think the ACLU is hoping that it can pressure the police into changing their position on this without having to resort to such measures.

Update: The Michigan State Police got in touch (via Twitter, believe it or not) to claim that the story is not accurate. According to them, they only use these devices with a warrant, "or if the person possessing the mobile device gives consent" (which, admittedly, opens up some questions, since under stressful circumstances, faced with a police officer, people may feel pressured to "give consent."). They don't explain the $545k bit, other than to say they've been working with the ACLU to "reduce" the cost.

Filed Under: freedom of information, michigan, mobile phones, privacy, traffic stops
Companies: aclu

83 Comments

For All The Promises Of Transparency, Obama Administration Responding To Fewer FOIA Requests

Failures

from the but-of-course dept

Wed, Mar 16th 2011 4:59am — Mike Masnick

One of the first moves that President Obama made upon taking office was to tell federal agencies to default to "allow" when it came to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and only deny in specific situations. It looks like that's not really happening. A new report points out that while the number of FOIA requests shot up last year, the government actually responded to many fewer of those requests. More than one-third of requests were refused. That's not the transparency we expected.

Filed Under: freedom of information, obama, transparency

49 Comments

Court Says Metadata Should Be Released Under Freedom Of Information Act Request

Legal Issues

from the commence-metadata-scrubbing dept

Thu, Feb 17th 2011 12:55am — Mike Masnick

Copycense points us to the fascinating news that a federal judge has ordered Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to reveal the metadata on a document as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. ICE had responded to the FOIA request (apparently "after significant delay,") but provided the content requested in an unsearchable PDF. The original requestor for the content, the National Day Laborer Organization, complained that this was unfair, and the information had to be supplied with metadata -- and the court agreed. The court also agreed that making the PDF unsearchable was not justified:

"Metadata maintained by the agency as a part of an electronic record is presumptively producible under FOIA, unless the agency demonstrates that such metadata is not 'readily producible.'"

Sounds like some government employees are going to need to spend the next few weeks scrubbing metadata from documents. Wouldn't want people to find out who really wrote various laws by looking at the metadata on Word docs, would we?

As for the unsearchable format, the judge slammed ICE for clearly going out of its way to make the document "more difficult or burdensome for the requesting party to use," in violation of standard discover rules. Nice to see that ICE has the time to purposely obfuscate records requested in a FOIA. Transparency in action...

Filed Under: freedom of information, metadata

19 Comments

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New York City Freedom Of Information Requests Fail Miserably

from the doesn't-Bloomberg-own-an-information-company dept

Once Again, The Freedom Of Information Act Is Proving To Be Just That: An Act

from the freedom's-just-another-word-for-[REDACTED] dept

Homeland Security Appears To Be Stalling On FOIA Requests Concerning Domain Seizures

from the violating-the-foia? dept

FOIA Request Unveils Secret CIA-Produced Documentary About CIA Agents Captured & Held In China For Decades

from the what's-the-copyright-status? dept

DHS's ICE Group Accused Of Lying To Court About Expense Of Complying With FOI Request

from the but-of-course dept

Techdirt Files FOIA Requests Concerning ICE 'Anti-Piracy' Videos

from the digging-in dept

Court Slams FBI For Saying It's Okay For The Federal Government To Lie To A Court

from the who-watches-the-watchers? dept

Michigan State Police Say It'll Cost $545k To Discover What Info It's Copying Off Mobile Phones During Traffic Stops [Updated]

from the that-sounds-like-extortion dept

For All The Promises Of Transparency, Obama Administration Responding To Fewer FOIA Requests

from the but-of-course dept

Court Says Metadata Should Be Released Under Freedom Of Information Act Request

from the commence-metadata-scrubbing dept

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