Entries tagged with: FOIA

435 result(s) displayed.

EPIC Seeks Documents About ICE's Use of Clearview, Other Facial Recognition Services

EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. EPIC challenged Immigration and Customs Enforcement's failure to respond to two Freedom of Information Act requests. The first request sought information...

GAO Report: CBP Needs to Address Privacy Issues with Facial Recognition Deployment

A report by the Government Accountability Office found that Customs and Border Protection needs to address privacy issues with the agency's deployment of facial recognition technology at ports of entry. CBP currently deploys facial recognition at 27 airports as part...

Documents Obtained by EPIC Reveal DHS’s Slow Response to Election Cybersecurity Threats, Underscore Risks Posed by New Voting Technologies

EPIC has obtained additional documents related to federal efforts to respond to election cybersecurity threats in its suit against the Department of Homeland Security. The documents include summaries of: the DHS's contacts with election officials, state reports of election security...

EPIC Obtains Records About Texas's Use of Aerial Surveillance

Through a Public Information Act request to the Texas Department of Public Safety, EPIC obtained records about the department's use of two Pilatus surveillance planes, including videos recorded during the George Floyd protests. Reports have indicated that these planes, purchased...

White House Tells EPIC to Delete COVID-19 Records, EPIC Declines

In an unusual development, the White House directed EPIC this week to delete a set of records that EPIC recently obtained from the Office of Science & Technology Policy—a request which EPIC declined. On Tuesday, EPIC published hundreds of records...

EPIC Seeks Release of Records About Election Cybersecurity

EPIC has filed a cross motion for summary judgement in EPIC v. DHS seeking records about the agency's assessment of election vulnerabilities in 2016 and 2018. EPIC filed the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security...

EPIC Settles ICE Lawsuit About Technology Used for Warrantless Searches of Mobile Devices

EPIC has settled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. EPIC sought records about the agency's use of mobile forensic technology used to conduct warrantless searches of mobile devices. EPIC obtained ICE contracts with Cellebrite and...

EPIC, Coalition to Congress: Stop funding Surveillance Tech Aimed at Peaceful Protesters

Today, EPIC and a group of over 100 privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties organizations urged Congress to halt funding of surveillance technology recently used against peaceful protesters and disproportionately aimed at communities of color. The group stated the need...

EPIC Obtains North Dakota Contact Tracing App Contract; App Goes Against Privacy Policy and Sends Data to Third Parties

Through a government records request EPIC has obtained the contract between North Dakota and ProudCrowd, LLC for the Care19 contact tracing app launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The one-year software license agreement between ProudCrowd and North Dakota provides...

EPIC Seeks Records About Utah and North Dakota's Contact Tracing Apps

EPIC has filed two government records requests to Utah and North Dakota seeking information about their contact tracing apps launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Utah launched Healthy Together, an app that tracks individual movements using Bluetooth and location...

EPIC Settles FOIA Case Regarding DHS Drone Reports

EPIC settled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to obtain public release of a drone status report and other related documents required by a 2015 Presidential Memorandum. The memorandum required the report to detail...

EPIC Settles FOIA Case About Facial Recognition Opt-Out Procedures At Airports

EPIC has settled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Customs and Border Protection. EPIC sought records concerning the agency's "alternative screening procedures" to determine whether travelers are able to to opt-out of facial recognition at airports. EPIC filed the...

EPIC Settles Lawsuit for Kavanaugh White House Records

EPIC has settled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the National Archives for records pertaining to Justice Kavanaugh's work on surveillance in the Bush White House post-9/11. EPIC will receive attorneys fees as part of the settlement. The records...

Justice Department Expedites EPIC's FOIA Request for Policies on Location Data Use

The Department of Justice has agreed to expedite EPIC's FOIA request for information about the agency's legal guidance on the use of location data. EPIC asked for records "regarding the lawfulness of the use of location data for public health...

EPIC Seeks Information about Secretary Ross’s Decision to Delay Census Data Reporting

EPIC sent an urgent Freedom of Information Act request to the Commerce Department today, seeking records about Secretary Wilbur Ross's decision to delay the 2020 Census reporting deadlines. In a statement this week Commerce Secretary Ross and the Census Bureau...

EPIC Obtains Documents on Tech Industry and Countering Violent Extremism

Through a Freedom of Information Act request EPIC obtained documents about a 2016 meeting with the leaders of the tech industry on countering violent extremism. The meeting included Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director Jame Comey, and Director of National...

EPIC Seeks Records About Oracle's Proposed System to Track COVID Patients

EPIC has filed an urgent FOIA request to obtain information about a system, proposed by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, to track COVID patients who are given experimental drug therapies. Oracle's "COVID-19 Therapeutic Learning System" urges healthcare companies to provide sensitive...

Trump Removes Inspector General for Intelligence Agencies

President Trump has removed Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson from his post. The President cited Atkinson's referral to Congress of a whistleblower complaint concerning Trump's efforts to have Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Atkinson was...

EPIC Pursues Information About Predictive Policing Programs

EPIC has filed a detailed FOIA request with the Department of Justice for information about Predictive Policing and Risk Assessment programs, funded by the federal government. The programs are described in a 2014 Justice Department report that EPIC obtained in...

DOJ Responds to EPIC FOIA on Location Data

In response to EPIC's Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department for information about the use of location data, including cell phone records, to counter the pandemic the DOJ wrote there are no "responsive records." EPIC had asked...

ICE Seeks to Expand Use of Facial Recognition

According to the Statement of Work, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to connect the agency's facial recognition system to the DHS Gang Intelligence Application database. ICE recently solicited contracts to overhaul the agency's interface with the Gang Intelligence Application...

EPIC Seeks Records About Lawfulness of Use of Location Data for Public Health Surveillance

EPIC has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Justice seeking legal analysis concerning the collection and use of GPS and cell phone location data for public health surveillance. EPIC explained "The Department of Justice plays...

DOJ Releases 2019 FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report

The Department of Justice has released the 2019 FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report which details the DOJ's efforts to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA across federal agencies. DOJ updated the Guide to the Freedom of Information Act, with recent...

EPIC Celebrates Sunshine Week with 2020 FOIA Gallery

In celebration of Sunshine Week, EPIC has unveiled the 2020 FOIA Gallery. Since 2001, EPIC has annually published highlights of EPIC's most significant open government cases. For example, last year EPIC filed the first lawsuit in the country for the...

EPIC Obtains Documents about DC Risk Assessment Use

In response to EPIC's FOIA Request, the DC Pretrial Services Agency produced several documents about its risk assessment instrument developed and validated by Maxarth. The government reduced the number of factors in risk factors from 70 to 43 in 2019...

EPIC Seeks Records About the Government's Use of Clearview AI App

EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to several government agencies seeking records about the government's use of Clearview AI technology. Clearview AI permits law enforcement agencies to conduct suspicionless searches of people in public spaces. The company...

In FOIA Case, EPIC Obtains New Documents From AI Commission

EPIC has obtained a more documents from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. The records obtained by EPIC show that the AI Commission was aware of work on algorithmic transparency and AI bias. But the Commission's recent report to...

Supreme Court to Hear Freedom of Information Act Case

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today it will consider a Freedom of Information Act case about the government's attempts to withhold documents from the public under the "deliberative process" exemption. In U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services v. Sierra Club, a...

EPIC Obtains DHS Report About 2016 Election Threats

Through EPIC's lawsuit against the DHS, EPIC obtained a previously undisclosed Report about security breaches prior to the 2016 Presidential Election. The DHS/FBI report "Threats of Federal, State, and Local Government Systems" describes attacks on US elections and includes recommendations...

EPIC Obtains Documents from Mississippi Corrections

In response to a public records request, EPIC received documents from the Mississippi Department of Corrections detailing their use of risk assessment tools. The results show that the Department uses risk assessments from pre-trial through parole. The document released to...

EPIC Obtains Documents About TSA's VIPR Program

Through a FOIA request, EPIC has obtained documents (pt. 1, 2, 3) about the TSA's "Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response" program. Created in 2004, the VIPR teams worked with law enforcement agencies to conduct warrantless searches at public events, including...

In FOIA Case, EPIC Obtains Details on State Department's Facial Recognition Program

In response to EPIC's Freedom on Information Act lawsuit, EPIC v. State, the State Department has provided EPIC with several agency agreements concerning State Department facial recognition program. The Consular Consolidated Database contains millions of images from visa and passport...

EPIC to Court: Order AI Commission to Open Meetings, Records

EPIC has filed a brief urging a federal court to enforce the transparency obligations of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. EPIC explained that the AI Commission must hold open meetings and publish its records on a regular basis....

EPIC Settles ICE Lawsuit about Palantir and Profiling

EPIC has settled a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. EPIC sought records about the agency's use of Palantir's technology for mass surveillance. The documents obtained by EPIC revealed the vast capabilities of agency program to...

EPIC FOIA - Kavanaugh Drafted White House Speeches on Warrantless Wiretapping

Emails obtained by EPIC in a FOIA lawsuit show that now Justice Kavanaugh, as a top White House advisor, drafted several speeches defending warrantless wiretapping after the New York Times exposed the controversial program in 2005. EPIC has created an...

EPIC Pursues Release of Location Tracking Orders

EPIC has moved for summary judgment in EPIC v. DOJ, concerning law enforcement's collection of cell site location data through "§ 2703(d) orders." In Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that these searches were unconstitutional. EPIC filed multiple...

DHS Agrees to Release Documents About Election Cybersecurity to EPIC

EPIC and DHS have filed a joint status report in EPIC v. DHS. The federal agency has agreed to reprocess previously withheld documents about election security. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in 2017, immediately after the agency's...

EPIC Obtains Documents about Nebraska's Flawed Risk Assessment Software

In response to EPIC's Freedom of Information Act request, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has provided to EPIC several documents about Nebraska's use of pre-trial risk assessments. Emails among state officials reveal concerns about the accuracy of the Vant4ge...

EPIC Obtains Docs about Critical Infrastructure Designation for Election Systems

In a FOIA lawsuit, EPIC has obtained an original draft of the proposal by former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to designate state election systems as critical infrastructure. Released in a set of previously withheld documents, the draft memo states "[g]iven...

EPIC to Congress: FOIA Critical to Homeland Security Oversight

EPIC has told a House committee that the Freedom of Information Act is critical to keep the Department of Homeland Security accountable. The House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing this week on "The Public’s Right to Know: FOIA at...

Senator Cantwell to FTC: Settlement Lets Facebook "Off the Hook"

Senator Maria Cantwell [D-WA], Ranking Member on the Senate Commerce Committee, has sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons regarding the FTC's controversial settlement with Facebook. "I am concerned that the settlement lets Facebook off the hook...

EPIC Uncovers 3,156 More Facebook Complaints at FTC—Over 29,000 Now Pending

Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, EPIC has obtained thousands of new consumer complaints (part 1, part 2)against Facebook. The most recent documents, released to EPIC, follow the Commission’s proposed $5 b settlement in July. Among the complaints uncovered...

EPIC Obtains New Documents in Mueller Case

EPIC has obtained new documents concerning Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The records were released in EPIC v. Department of Justice, EPIC's case for the release of the Mueller Report and related documents. The documents...

EPIC Renews Request for Information About National AI Commission

EPIC has renewed its request with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence for records and access to Commission meetings. Created by Congress in 2018, the AI Commission is tasked with considering "the methods and means necessary to advance the...

EPIC Challenges Justice Department's Refusal to Search for Location Tracking Orders

EPIC has filed an amended complaint against the Justice Department, charging that the agency engages in a "pattern and practice" of violating the Freedom of Information Act. Earlier EPIC filed a FOIA lawsuit to compel the DOJ to disclose records...

EPIC v. DEA: Court Rules Agency Can Keep Secret the Names of Agencies Using Hemisphere

A federal court in Washington, DC ruled this week that the DEA does not have to disclose to EPIC the names of the other agencies that use the Hemisphere call records database managed by AT&T. Earlier in the same FOIA...

EPIC Seeks Consumer Complaints about Facebook Pending Before FTC Prior to Settlement Agreement

EPIC has submitted an urgent Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Trade Commission seeking all consumer complaints pending before the Commission at the time the agency entered into the settlement with Facebook. The proposed settlement order "resolves" all...

Bi-Partisan FOIA Reform Bill Would Correct Recent Supreme Court Decision

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced the Open and Responsive Government Act (S. 2220) to reverse the recent Supreme Court decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media which...

BREAKING - EPIC Seeks Public Release of FTC Settlement with Facebook

Today EPIC filed an expedited Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Trade Commission, seeking the public release of the proposed settlement with Facebook. Last week the Wall Street Journal first reported that the FTC approved a $5 billion...

EPIC FOIA - FTC Enforcement Director Participated in Over 100 Meetings About Facebook Post-Cambridge Analytica

As a result of EPIC's Freedom of Information Act request, the Federal Trade Commission released records indicating that FTC Associate Director of Enforcement James A. Kohm participated in at least 162 meetings since the Commission adopted the consent order with...