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NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

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Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#11
post #7
post #2

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

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

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

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#12
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.

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#13

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?

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

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

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#14
post #9

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?

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.

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#15

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?

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

What makes you so sure?

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#16

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: Al…

- 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

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#17
> 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?

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#18

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: Al…

- 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, t…

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

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#19
post #9

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?

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.

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

Re: NSA: Please Stop Mailing Us FOIA Requests

#20
post #17

> 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?

> 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.

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