NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

http://www.mynsarecords.com/blog/2013-06-21-nsa-please-stop-sending-us-foia-requests/

by tsaoutourpants • 13 years ago

48 57 13 years ago

mynsarecords.com

cg4102• 13 years ago

They found your e-mail without you giving it to them? Sounds like NSA.

cschmidt• 13 years ago

Pretty spooky. Or maybe the woman just went to his website, and looked at the contact page.

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

Yes but... I didn't give them my Web site, either. All they had was my name as the return address.

MysticFear• 13 years ago

who.godaddy.com

surrealize2• 13 years ago

Protesting can be great. But if a protest only affects low-level paper handlers with no decision making power, then what are you really accomplishing?

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

I am quite sure that the fact that they are getting so many requests will travel up higher than the paper handlers. :)

surrealize2• 13 years ago

I hope so. Thinking about it some more: I suppose they don't provide an efficient online form for motions to quash, do they?

dfc10• 13 years ago

So they can augment their budget estimates for next year's FOIA compliance program?

ejdyksen• 13 years ago

What makes you so sure?

dedward• 13 years ago

So.. they said please, didn't threaten you, and pointed out a few potential problems with the method you are using (like missing return addresses).

That seems.. helpful?

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

They were certainly polite. :)

I did a quick check for people submitting things like "FUCK YOU" and "YOUR MOM" in every field and deleted those before sending. A couple I let through had things like missing city but valid ZIP code, which I assume would actually be enough to get the letter to them. 95% of what was sent had a full address.

moneta2• 13 years ago

The post will deliver with a wrong city & state if you have a valid zip code. :)

dfc10• 13 years ago

A couple I let through had things like missing city but valid ZIP code, which I assume would actually be enough to get the letter to them

Did you ever read their instructions for filing a FOIA request? "If you do not include a name and complete postal address, NSA will be unable to respond."[1]

While you are here I dont understand what you mean by:

"It seems that the NSA does not quite get that this is a protest, in addition to a request for information."

How did you expect them to act? And/or what behavior would constitute recognition that this is a "protest"? NSA is required by law to respond to FOIA requests. The civil servant that emailed you was doing what her employer told her to do so that she could continue to bring a paycheck home. Are all the "protest" FOIA requests supposed to get tossed in a burn bag at the end of the day?

[1] http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/foia/submit_foia_request/foia...

pwenzel• 13 years ago

Does it bother anyone else that the online FOIA Request form [1] is not protected by SSL?

Edit: I attempted to submit a request via the online form, but it responded "An error occurred while processing your request." This makes the paper request seem much more reasonable now.

[1] http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/foia/submit_foia_request/foia...

diminoten4• 13 years ago

What's the actual protest? That the paper FOIA requests don't include the required information to honor said request, allowing the NSA to throw out the requests entirely without having to spend time fulfilling them?

Sounds more like the ~~company~~ guy is trying to cover for ~~its~~ his fuckup filling out the forms. It's a much more effective protest to actually make the NSA follow through with the requests.

Edit: Also, from http://www.mynsarecords.com/contact/

    To reach Jon, please e-mail: jcorbett [at] fourtentech.com

Yes, how did they get your email, indeed. Probably some kind of spy technology.

This man is an idiot, please don't fill up HN with this drivel.

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

- I am "the company guy" / "idiot"

- Forms were generated via script, so no "fucking up filling out forms" (by me, anyway)

- A few people entered incomplete addresses, but I sent them anyway because I thought the address was sufficient to reach them (for example, missing city but valid ZIP)

- 95% of the forms I sent had full, valid addresses

- The NSA wasn't provided with my Web site, so in order to get the e-mail, they had to stalk that down first

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

Also, people who submitted obviously invalid addresses were contacted by e-mail and allowed to re-submit. Pretty stupid, right? ;)

diminoten4• 13 years ago

I Googled the address you list on your website. Your name comes up. Googling your name reveals your blog.

Your blog links to the mynsarecords website.

Took me 2 minutes.

Edit: I'm not as quick as pavs though, it only took him 30s:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5920564

agwa• 13 years ago

This man is an idiot, please don't fill up HN with this drivel.

This personal insult is uncalled for. It's easy to sit around and complain about what the government is doing, but this man has actually gone out and done something - setting up infrastructure to make it easier for the average person to submit these requests, he is spreading the word, etc. He has also done great work protesting the TSA.

diminoten4• 13 years ago

He muddies the water, and increases the signal/noise ratio.

Idiot may have been harsh as a judgement of character, but this post is idiotic.

saraid216• 13 years ago

The linked post is not "great work". It's ignorance piled on indignation.

tzs• 13 years ago

It's easy to sit around and complain about what the government is doing, but this man has actually gone out and done something - setting up infrastructure to make it easier for the average person to submit these requests

His infrastructure does not make it easier to submit these requests. It is harder to submit them with his stuff than to use the NSA's own form:

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/foia/submit_foia_request/foia...

dfc10• 13 years ago

As far as I am concerned that email is the work product of a dedicated civil servant. I wish more companies I interact with would do something like google my name in order to learn about my needs and then email me advice on how to better utilize their service.

DanBC• 13 years ago

It seems that the NSA does not quite get that this is a protest

I don't get it. What's it achieving?

Imagine the NSA ending up with a desk full of a million records requests, and what a statement that would make, even if they refuse to process every one of them.

Well, they've got at least 500 so far. Only nine hundred and ninety nine thousand to go.

I wonder how many of those 500 have any records with NSA?

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

I wonder how many of those 500 have any records with NSA?

Probably all of them, since the NSA collects phone records on every American.

unreal37• 13 years ago

500.

The NSA is capturing all internet and telephone traffic for every individual on this planet with a phone or email account.

But perhaps they don't index it by person name, and so 500 becomes 0 because of that.

tsaoutourpants13• 13 years ago

We include the phone number for them so they can look it up :)

spacecadet• 13 years ago

So the NSA's secret spy tool is Google search?

revelation• 13 years ago

You would think the NSA would sign outgoing communication.

Guess not.

ianhawes• 13 years ago

Read receipt requested? That seems unnecessary given its the NSA.

NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

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