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Comment by alimoeeny | Hacker News Reader

Can I do this for myself? I mean can I submit a FOIA to see documents that fed gov has on me? Not that I am an important person, but I mean in general, what does it take?

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A form, time (it isn't fast), and a nominal filing fee (requests are mostly processed by humans, especially on old documents)

You may be disappointed though. When FOIA came about, plenty of "activists" requested their files, swelling with pride thinking of all the things that must be in there- only to find just one entry:

03/07/2012: Submitted FOIA request for personal file

What about files which the government won't admit the existence of? For example, what will someone on the no-fly list see when they submit a FOIA for their files?

They'll receive a Glomar response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_response

I received one of these when I submitted FOIA on myself.

FOIA is really just a way to make people think they get access to data about them or important things. Most FOIA's about real topics get flat-out denied or the govt pretends to not have anything about the subject.

You can do this, and I have done this. If you're a somewhat normal person, they probably don't have anything on you. They had no information about me, and most of them included letters saying "we would appreciate it if people stopped sending us these requests because we have much less information than you think we do, and it costs money for us to process these requests."

Here's the site that I used to create the letters I sent for each FOIA request: http://www.getmyfbifile.com/

you mean "they didn't have"

In fact, yes: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/fbifile

That is, if it doesn't get denied for supposed "National Security" reasons like most of us who filed FOIA's for our data out of the NSA.

(the secret with FOIA's is that the government still gets to decide if they want to release the information)

I, like most, got a blanket denial from my senator (D. Dianne Feinstein) via email stating they cannot disclose whether or not they have any data about me.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/06/1221694/-NSA-Reject...

The NSA is hardly the entirety of the US Federal Government. Notably, none of these documents on Aaron Swartz were from the NSA.

Whilst I'm sympathetic to the idea of keeping the NSA's operations under the spotlight, that doesn't mean there isn't significant benefit (or just interest) in other things too.

Don't see your point. The FBI denies plenty of FOIA's.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/benghazi-fbi-fo...

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131118/01542825271/fbi-s...

If the FBI released the Swartz data, it's because they felt like it, not because the FOIA somehow actually compelled them to.

That TechDirt article is really interesting.

For those who were put off by the other article, here's the TL;DR:

A person has discovered that by lodging multiple FOIA requests along with multiple privacy waivers he can get access to data that he wouldn't be able to normally get access to. The article doesn't go into the mechanics of it, but it sounds like each request is hitting a different censor, and each censor censors things slightly differently, and so information leaks out from the differences. These differences give clues as to where to lodge new FOIA requests.

Ironically, this approach is somewhat analogous to mass metadata collection: a single record doesn't do much, but in bulk a very comprehensive picture is built up that wouldn't be available otherwise.

It seems the FBI is arguing this in court, and trying to stop the approach. I can completely understand their concerns, and I'm not sure I have an opinion on which way the court should rule.

(As for the "CanadaFreePress" article: I think the FBI's refusal is completely legal, and even reasonable. Even if you don't agree, there is little legal doubt that the FBI is legally entitled to deny requests regarding ongoing investigations.)

i agree that any request for data regarding an ongoing investigation should be denied - but after the investigation is over, all data pertaining to it _must_ be released publically. This will allow the public to have oversight of the process, leading to better outcomes in the end.

Citizen, we are ever vigilant, and never stop investigating.

If you submit a FOIA request on yourself you will probably be denied.

FOIA Requests are only for organizations, businesses, investigations, historical events, incidents, groups, or deceased persons.

Privacy Act Requests are for yourself. You must include Form DOJ-361 or equivalent when submitting.

No. Just no. Please don't take the comment above as valid legal advice.

Did you spot a specific issue, or are you just opposed to any form of legal advice given on HN?

Well, it would be nice if they cited something, rather than just making general statements that may or may not be true.

Um, it's not really "legal advice". That's just how it is.

It's not rocket science. Here's what the FBI has to say about the issue: http://www.fbi.gov/foia/requesting-fbi-records

The CIA, NSA, an just about every other agency have the same information on their site. It's also on Wikipedia.

> FOIA Requests are only for organizations, businesses,

so if i create a company/business, then i can do the exact same request and it will not be denied? I don't understand the difference between an individual vs a business (which is owned, and presumably, act in the interest, of the individual).

As I understand it, FOIA requests on living individuals will be denied. If you create a business, and there is a file on that business, and you send a FOIA request it will be acknowledged… but odds are they won't have anything on the entity.

FOIA requests are not magic. It's just a way for people to see things like declassified National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs).

If you send a FOIA request on a living individual you usually get either denied outright or sent back documents that are completely redacted to respect the privacy of that individual (even if that individual is you). This is what Privacy Act requests are for.

Take a look at the FOIA Machine: https://www.foiamachine.org/

Anyone can.

http://www.foia.gov/how-to.html

Non-citizens, too?

> Non-citizens, too?

The general rule is that anyone, citizen and non-citizen, can make a FOIA request.[1] However, the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court only provides a guarantee to open access for US citizens when making a request of a federal agency. For requests of a state agency, only US citizens residing in that state are guaranteed open access.[2]

[1]: http://www.foia.gov/faq.html#who

[2]: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/scotus-foils-foia-advo...

There was an interesting talk during the last HOPE about FOIA requests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIZNcCUDOHg

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