Why aren't all non-classified, non-sensitive public data actually public by default? The time, effort and money they spent fighting the FOIA lawsuit - wouldn't it just be easier and cheaper to just honor the request?
Just provide a DB dump to this one guy.
They even refused to provide the database schema - how is providing just the schema expensive? Or hard to do?
> Your request seeks a copy of tables or columns within each table of CANVAS. The dissemination of these pieces of network information could jeopardize the security of the systems of the City of Chicago.
Although of course that's a lot more in principle than in practice! Like rolling your own crypto, I think experience shows that, against determined de-anonymizers, there is basically nothing you can do to preserve anonymity except to severely limit the information, and the only way definite feedback you get is if you don't succeed and someone discloses the de-anonymized information that they were able to reconstruct.
Your argument makes me think we really SHOULD make all government data public. Then people would have an incentive to not let governments have so much of their private data.
Also, I hope you don't mean the federal government should know if you've been arrested. I don't think that should be available to them at all.
Nobody is going to write a DB schema or call a DBA before taking notes in a notebook… but that’s government data too.
Example: https://home.nps.gov/katm/blogs/images/IMG_3229.jpg
They're just people doing their best. Try to be a little less breathless with your rhetoric.
If you apply the assumption that government employees are better or more well intentioned than the population in general then it makes the government's actions look even worse.