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Matt Compton: “In September 2009, the President announced thatfor the first time in historyWhite House visitor records would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis. Todays release also includes visitor records generated prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested by members of the public in November 2012 pursuant to the White …
“A new study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has found that there were more court complaints asking federal judges to force the government to abide by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) during the first term of the Obama Administration than there were in the last term of President Bush. While the administration-to-administration …
News release: “Today EFF posted several thousand pages of new drone license records and a new map that tracks the location of drone flights across the United States. These records, received as a result of EFFs Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), come from state and local law enforcement …
National Security Archive: “A government-wide Freedom of Information Act audit by the National Security Archive has found that sixty-two out of ninety-nine government agencies have not updated their FOIA regulations since US Attorney General Eric Holder issued his March 19, 2009 FOIA memorandum to all heads of executive departments instructing them to make discretionary FOIA …
CRS – Government Transparency and Secrecy: An Examination of Meaning and Its Use in the Executive Branch, November 8, 2012 “From the beginnings of the American federal government, Congress has required executive branch agencies to release or otherwise make available government information and records. Some scholars and statesmen, including James Madison, thought access to information …
News release: “From cell phone location tracking to the use of surveillance drones, from secret interpretations of electronic surveillance law to the expanding use of biometrics, EFF has long been at the forefront of the push for greater transparency on the governments increasingly secretive use of new technologies. With the launch of our new Transparency …
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC): “The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Justice Department has just released a report criticizing the statistics of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Lost in the news coverage of the OIG’s report are several important points: First, in criticizing the EOIR numbers, the OIG’s report doesn’t acknowledge …
News release: “The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the Department of Commerce (DOC), have partnered to develop an online system aimed at expanding public access to information requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FOIAonline, formerly known as the FOIA Module, is available as of …
“FOIAonline is a tool that allows both the public and agency staff to make, monitor, and manage FOIA requests from a single website. Requesters may choose to submit requests and file appeals by registering for an account. This will also allow requesters to track progress and communicate directly with agency staff. Prior to making a …
Interactive Graphic by David Ingold, David Evans and Danny Dougherty. Reporting by Danielle Ivory and Jim Snyder: “On his first full day in the White House, Barack Obama promised to usher in a new era of open government and ordered officials to be more transparent with the public they serve. An investigation to test that …
“Through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Trade Commission, EPIC has obtained Google’s initial privacy assessment. The assessment was required by a settlement between Google and the FTC that followed from a 2010 complaint filed by EPIC over Google Buzz. The FTC has withheld from public disclosure information about the audit process, …
Naomi Gilens: “Justice Department documents released today by the ACLU reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability. The documents, handed over by the government only after months of litigation, are the attorney generals 2010 and 2011 reports on the use …
