The FBI is Making It Harder to File FOIA Requests by Limiting Requests to Fax and Snail Mail
17 replies, posted
[URL]http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/fbi-foia-records-requests-email-fax/[/URL]
[QUOTE]The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will implement a new policy next month likely to further frustrate people seeking public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
At the beginning of March, the FBI will no longer accept FOIA requests via email. Instead, [B]requesters will have to rely on fax machines and standard mail (“snail mail”) in order to communicate with the agency’s records management division.[/B] The agency will also accept a fraction of requests through an online portal, provided users agree to a terms-of-service agreement and are willing to provide the FBI with personal information, including a phone number and physical address.
The new procedure mirrors that of other agencies that intentionally rely on archaic technologies to process public records requests. The Central Intelligence Agency, for instance, only accepts such requests by fax, while the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which researches advanced technologies on behalf of the Pentagon, also ditched email a few years ago in favor of old-school fax machines. [B]The FBI’s records division has also been known to use computers from the 1980s specifically to create technological roadblocks.[/B][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]FOIA is a decades-old law that has become an increasingly popular method of prying loose government documents for public consumption. The revelation that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton relied on a private, unsecured email server to conduct official government business, for example, was revealed only after then-Vice reporter Jason Leopold requested access to her State Department correspondence.
While the Clinton case illustrates on an extreme level how instrumental FOIA can be in exposing wrongdoing at the highest levels of government, the majority of requests aid reporters and citizens in uncovering more mundane, but nevertheless vital, documents that shed light on the inner workings of the government.[B] As the Supreme Court of the United States famously explained in a 1978 case: “The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”[/B][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]“The FBI does nearly everything within its power to avoid compliance with the Freedom of Information Act,” continued [B]Shapiro, whose most recent FOIA project—“Operation 45”—is seeking records related to President Donald Trump.[/B] The result, as Shapiro describes it, is an “outrageous state of affairs in which the leading federal law enforcement agency in the country is in routine and often flagrant violation of federal law.” [/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Under the federal statute, the FBI has 20 days to respond to requests [B](though it can unilaterally extend that deadline by an additional 10 days whenever it deems necessary)[/B]. But to receive government records from the FBI within a month is almost unheard of—meaning the agency is consistently violating the law, without facing repercussions: FOIA is, unfortunately, entirely toothless as [B]the federal statute does not prescribe penalties of any kind for the agencies that brazenly violate it.[/B][/QUOTE]
[i]What are they trying to hide.[/i]
Anyway if someone really wanted some info I am sure they would fax them :v:
[URL="http://www.spj.org/foiabout.asp"]Here's what the Society of Professional Journalists has to say about the Freedom of Information Act.[/URL] Feel like this adds a little bit of context for what we're actually losing here.
[quote]The agency will also accept a fraction of requests through an online portal, provided users agree to a terms-of-service agreement and are willing to provide the FBI with personal information, including a phone number and physical address.[/quote]
Sure you can still do it the easy way, if you tell us where you live and how to find you.
this makes that USDA purge even worse
What if someone created a front-end that is designed to overcome any technological roadblocks involved with FOIA requests, and they allowed anyone to make requests through that?
For example if they are using old ass fax machines, someone could assemble a server that basically takes FOIA requests via email or through a website, and faxes them where they need to go. All it would take is some funding and someone dedicated enough to track down whatever hardware can interface with an old fax machine in a reliable manner.
This reminds me, a link got posted here for people to submit requests for files on themselves.
Combine this with the fact that all the executive bureaus' FOIA officers are political appointees who have yet to be replaced, and the FOIA is almost completely useless. I've hand-mailed at least three requests since the election ended and I haven't heard a thing on any of them.
[QUOTE=Cows Rule;51787695]This reminds me, a link got posted here for people to submit requests for files on themselves.[/QUOTE]
They won't give them to you if you're living. Me and three other people I know have tried. I'm not from the US, so odds are if they didn't have a file on me before, after my FOIA request they definitely do now.
[editline]7th February 2017[/editline]
For reference, I requested my late uncle's FBI file, too, since he [b]was[/b] definitely questioned by the FBI as a witness (and possible suspect) over something that happened in one of his bars as a nightlife promoter when he was in the States. They wanted me to sign an NDA and either mail it to an embassy or fax it in, with very thinly veiled extradition threats peppered throughout if I lied on any part of it, so I refused and cancelled the request.
[QUOTE=mecaguy03;51787669]What if someone created a front-end that is designed to overcome any technological roadblocks involved with FOIA requests, and they allowed anyone to make requests through that?
For example if they are using old ass fax machines, someone could assemble a server that basically takes FOIA requests via email or through a website, and faxes them where they need to go. All it would take is some funding and someone dedicated enough to track down whatever hardware can interface with an old fax machine in a reliable manner.[/QUOTE]
Install Win7 with a fax modem card or usb dongle and use the built in fax software to send and receive. No need to deal with old as balls machines, just buy the cheapest modem you can get your hands on and a phone line.
[QUOTE=mecaguy03;51787669]What if someone created a front-end that is designed to overcome any technological roadblocks involved with FOIA requests, and they allowed anyone to make requests through that?
For example if they are using old ass fax machines, someone could assemble a server that basically takes FOIA requests via email or through a website, and faxes them where they need to go. All it would take is some funding and someone dedicated enough to track down whatever hardware can interface with an old fax machine in a reliable manner.[/QUOTE]
If that were the problem, we wouldn't be talking about this right now.
They want to hide EVERYTHING, and they're slowly but surely making it so they can.
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;51788081]If that were the problem, we wouldn't be talking about this right now.
They want to hide EVERYTHING, and they're slowly but surely making it so they can.[/QUOTE]
:tinfoil:
People still use fax?
[QUOTE=T-hunter;51788851]People still use fax?[/QUOTE]
Japan is the land of robots and fax machines. And vending machines.
[QUOTE=T-hunter;51788851]People still use fax?[/QUOTE]
Are you kidding me? The FBI is still using Ditto machines to make copies....
[QUOTE=T-hunter;51788851]People still use fax?[/QUOTE]
When your email isn't TLS-encrypted and mail takes too long, fax is the only way to securely send a document same-day. Take a job in an office and you'll quickly understand why fax is necessary, especially if you're working closely to legal and government sources.
It would be neat to make a FOIA scraper or automate the process as much as possible.
Least transparent yet most transparent president ever
These are bad omens of what's to come.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.