So my friend did a Freedom of Information Act request on himself for Project Prism

[Acanthus]

He posted the full text of their reply.

https://vikingvpn.com/blogs/politics/foia-request-for-my-own-prism-data

TLDR: They denied him based on authority from Obama's executive order.

I'm thinking of doing one for myself too, not that i'll get anything either.

Edit: I gots bad grammar.

 

[gevorg]

I bet they put these requests on a fridge in their water cooler room

 

[Jaskalas]

"Freedom" haha, you funny guy!

 

[monovillage]

I bet they put these requests on a fridge in their water cooler room

I bet they put those requests in a file of trouble makers to be watched more closely and investigated further at any opportunity.

 

[Acanthus]

I bet they put those requests in a file of trouble makers to be watched more closely and investigated further at any opportunity.

Lol that is what i said to him. "Man if you didn't have a file before, you do now!"

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Ok, here's the thing. Suppose your friend was a budding terrorist. Let's say he has planned an attack but wanted to check if any potentially incriminating evidence might be on record. What to do? File a FOIA form.

I'm among the first in line to object to the program and invulnerability to accountability, however I think I've answered why this response was made.

 

[Balt]

It took them a couple of weeks to send me their rejection letter.

Only a couple of weeks? They got that form letter approved in record time for a government agency.

 

[unokitty]

He posted the full text of their reply.

https://vikingvpn.com/blogs/politics/foia-request-for-my-own-prism-data

TLDR: They denied him based on authority from Obama's executive order.

Considered sending your request to Wikileaks?

Uno

 

[her209]

Tell your friend, Justin, to cut out the shenanigans.

 

[Lithium381]

Ok, here's the thing. Suppose your friend was a budding terrorist. Let's say he has planned an attack but wanted to check if any potentially incriminating evidence might be on record. What to do? File a FOIA form.

I'm among the first in line to object to the program and invulnerability to accountability, however I think I've answered why this response was made.

Evidence of something that hasnt happened yet?

 

[michal1980]

If you have nothing to hide, then why is government hiding your information? hmmm

answer that anti privacy nutters.

 

[Angry Irishman]

If you have nothing to hide, then why is government hiding your information? hmmm

answer that anti privacy nutters.

That's really not the point....

It's a direct violation of Constitutional rights...period.

 

[Oldgamer]

That's really not the point....

It's a direct violation of Constitutional rights...period.

This is the problem I have with all this, they over classify everything. Everything is a secret so if they are violating your rights, they aren't going to tell you, and you won't know till at some point they decide to use any information (innocent or not) against you, like say, you decide to be a protestor. Or you want to participate in protesting events. There is no transparency what so ever, and that means they can violate anyone's rights, abuse the information they garner, and keep all this from you and the public. There is no "checks and balances" in Government anymore. Period. I would suspect that if it was an actual terrorist or someone associated with real terrorists they could easily send that type of letter to them, they have the information on them and know who they are to be able to distinguish a real threat and a non threat. But to do this to your average Joe citizen who poses no threat to anyone just makes no sense. Too many American's are getting to comfortable with all this and taking it way too lightly.

Taking your constitutional rights for granted and being non chalante' on these matters, thinking its no big deal will eventually come to bite everyone in the ass at some point.

 

[Acanthus]

If you have nothing to hide, then why is government hiding your information? hmmm

answer that anti privacy nutters.

Because they don't want you to know the extent that they are dragnetting information.

The problem is how the information, which is stored for 10+ years, can be misused.

 

[zephyrprime]

Lol that is what i said to him. "Man if you didn't have a file before, you do now!"

Everyone's got a file on them. That's what dragnet programs like PRISM allow.

 

[CycloWizard]

Ok, here's the thing. Suppose your friend was a budding terrorist. Let's say he has planned an attack but wanted to check if any potentially incriminating evidence might be on record. What to do? File a FOIA form.

I'm among the first in line to object to the program and invulnerability to accountability, however I think I've answered why this response was made.

Exactly. As long as such a program exists, the answer can never be different.

 

[zsdersw]

The truly insidious thing about terrorism is what it forces free nations to do to themselves; the changes it makes them do to themselves in the name of security. That's how terrorism and terrorists win.

Even if this program specifically and much of what the NSA does in general is totally within the bounds of US laws and proper oversight, it is still something that makes the government bigger and more intrusive.. and that is almost never a good thing.

 

[mikeymikec]

The truly insidious thing about terrorism is what it forces free nations to do to themselves; the changes it makes them do to themselves in the name of security. That's how terrorism and terrorists win.

Loss of freedom/privacy in the name of security has nothing to do with "the terrorists winning"; it rarely* is the objective of terrorists to alter the way a country works in only that respect.

* - I would say "has never" or "never is", but I think "never say never", nor do I believe my grasp of history on this topic is good enough to make such a statement, but I believe it. The only hypothetical exception scenario I can think of would be a government creating a fake terrorist threat with the sole purpose of spying the living daylights out of the people.

Losing freedom/privacy as a general rule in an attempt to combat terrorism is a government's way of saying, "We don't know of anything we can do to improve our effectiveness against the enemy, so this is us looking like we're doing something, and we can keep an eye on the nay-sayers easier this way because we're worried that our incompetence will be exposed."

 

[Ancalagon44]

I think if you took news of this back 40 years ago, during the height of the Cold War, the USSR would be laughing with glee at what became of their enemy. And I would think the Americans would be horrified at what they allowed themselves to become.

 

[Acanthus]

Tell your friend, Justin, to cut out the shenanigans.

Swing and a miss!

 

[zsdersw]

Loss of freedom/privacy in the name of security has nothing to do with "the terrorists winning"; it rarely* is the objective of terrorists to alter the way a country works in only that respect.

It's not something the terrorists explicitly set out to do, but it is one way in which they win against the rest of us.

 

[1prophet]

Ok, here's the thing. Suppose your friend was a budding terrorist. Let's say he has planned an attack but wanted to check if any potentially incriminating evidence might be on record. What to do? File a FOIA form.

I'm among the first in line to object to the program and invulnerability to accountability, however I think I've answered why this response was made.

Hollywood makes out terrorists to be some intelligent mastercriminal, but in reality they are anything but that allowing them to get through using crude devices (boxcutters, shoe bombs, pressure pots, etc.) while agencies are looking for a comic book supervillain.

 

[Nintendesert]

http://www.fbi.gov/foia/foia-exemptions


There are a lot of problems with secret government databases about people that go beyond the normal dialogue that occurs here on P&N, but it's not surprising the results he got due to the exemptions built into the law.

 

[master_shake_]

murica...