Feds Demand Over Half A Million Dollars To Fulfill A Freedom Of Information Act Request

from the well-that's-one-way-to-avoid-it dept

When President Obama took office, one of the very first things he did was declare that all government agencies should default towards openness in dealing with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It looks like some are trying to sneak around that a bit. Wired has the story of an FOIA request where the government is demanding $522,886 in order to fulfill the request. This certainly gives off the appearances of pretending to be open while figuring out a nice way to toss up a huge roadblock. Oh, by the way, that single bill would just about equal the entire cost that the US gov't charged for all FOIA responses in 2008. Why so expensive? That's not particularly clear. Apparently, the guy filing the request even knows which file cabinets the information he needs is in, so it's not like the gov't has to go searching for it...

Filed Under: freedom of information, transparency

EFF, ACLU Sue To Find Out Details Of Gov't Use Of Mobile Phone Data To Track People

from the it's-like-your-own-personal-beacon dept

Back in November, the news broke on the Friday after Thanksgiving that the federal government routinely asked for and received information from mobile phone operators about the location of various mobile phones (effectively tracking their owners) without bothering to show any sort of probable cause. This should raise plenty of concern (especially combined with the warrantless wiretapping program), as it effectively would mean that if you own a mobile phone, you've given the gov't the freedom to figure out where you are at any moment in time with no probable cause.

The EFF and the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests to find out details of the program, which were (not surprisingly) denied by the Justice Department. The two organizations have now sued the government to find out more about these programs. Given the government's reaction to similar lawsuits on wiretapping, don't expect much info to come out of this lawsuit -- and do expect a vigorous attempt to get the case dismissed with various bogus claims of "state secrets" and "national security." It all comes down to the same basic thing, though. The government seems to think it's above the law.

Filed Under: freedom of information, government, mobile phones, tracking
Companies: aclu, eff

Why Would The Gov't Hide Documents About A .xxx Domain?

from the please-explain dept

The back and forth over the potential for a .xxx domain reserved for porn has been discussed at length, though, it's still rather amusing to see one set of politicians who believe it's a good thing, as it would keep porn away from children, and another set of politicians who believe it's a bad thing because it somehow "legitimizes" porn (this would be known as the "head-in-sand" position, considering that porn online hardly needs to be "legitimized" at this point). Either way, the Bush administration came down on the "head-in-sand" side after receiving pressure from family groups. That resulted in pressure on ICANN who, despite claiming independence from the US gov't, rejected the proposal after originally being for it.

The folks behind the .xxx proposal were (understandably) livid, and have filed Freedom of Information requests to find out what kind of discussions the gov't had in determining its position. Oddly, while some documents were released, the State Department and Commerce Department withheld many documents relating to discussions over the .xxx domain. A lawsuit was quickly filed, and a court has now ruled that the government doesn't have to reveal all the documents unless it's been shown that it blocked .xxx for "nefarious purposes." I had no idea that was a component of making FoIA decisions. Having a separate .xxx domain seems totally unnecessary (and just a way for registrars to soak up some extra money), but that still doesn't explain why the government felt the need to not release certain documents explaining its position. Kind of ironic that this comes out during Sunshine Week, which is supposed to highlight gov't openness.

Filed Under: .xxx. bush administration, freedom of information

West Virginia Tax Assessor Rethinking Plan To Stop People From Posting Public Tax Maps

from the okay,-maybe-it's-not-so-bad dept

Paul Alan Levy writes in with a followup to the story about the West Virginia Tax Assessor who was trying to prevent a website from posting public tax maps, complaining that it would take away a source of revenue. Apparently, the tax assessor is rethinking this plan. While she hasn't yet dropped the lawsuit, she has withdrawn the request for an immediate injunction and the case has been put on hold while the tax assessor and her lawyers "study" the matter.

Filed Under: freedom of information, tax assessor, tax maps, west virginia