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EFF Unveils Search Tool for FOIA Results
The EFF has released a beta version of a new search tool that lets you mine the documents the EFF has unearthed using FOIA requests and lawsuits over the years. Quoting: "In celebration of Sunshine Week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched a sophisticated search tool that allows the public to closely examine thousands of pages of documents the organization has pried loose from secretive government agencies. The documents relate to a wide range of cutting-edge technology issues and government policies that affect civil liberties and personal privacy." I tried a search for "border" among the documents relating to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and turned up 21 results and fascinating reading.
but i donate to EFF frequently too.
After Obama reversed himself on FISA I wrote his campaign demanding a refund of all monies I had donated to them. When I received said refund I donated every single penny (>$500) to the EFF. They do good work and unlike the ACLU they aren't hypocrites, at least as far as I can tell.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Let me guess before looking, hundreds of PDF files with those annoying black lines through
that parts people are really interested in.
I remember reading somewhere about a method of removing the black lines by calculating what the word could be based on the font used (letter spacing). I am not sure how far it got, and weather you could input a context.
And some information is always better than no information.
Depends on the department, some places it goes smooth as clockwork. That's your clue you didn't ask for anything unpatriotic or counterrevolutionary.
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
If one had sufficient resources, it would be quite interesting to use large numbers of FOIA requests, on a wide variety of topics, to build a "topic sensitivity map", if you will, of various agencies. Analogous to the various network mapping and monitoring techniques that infer things about the network's structure, load, and so on by looking at packet response times, TTLs, and losses.