PPSA Sues Alphabet Soup of Agencies for Records on Purchases of Americans’ Private Data

​PPSA today announces the filing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against federal agencies that refused to respond to a series of FOIA requests we submitted in June. These requests seek documents concerning communications with Members of Congress and non-governmental organizations that would shed light on how the government acquires Americans’ private digital information.
 
PPSA’s FOIA requests were sent to the gamut of federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies. They included the Department of Justice and the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. PPSA asked for records of communications regarding data purchases and legislation, such as the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, that would rein in this warrantless surveillance.
 
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the agencies are bound to perform a search and respond back. Instead:
 

• Offices within the Department of Justice gave our FOIA request a tracking number and then … no further correspondence. A door shut in our face. PPSA got the same treatment from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

 

• The National Security Agency said it had completed searches for the responsive records, but they were being placed “in the first-in, first-out processing backlog queue.” The FBI said the request was too vague and closed the request. The Department of Homeland Security never responded.

 
In every instance, the agencies failed to conduct a search reasonably likely to locate responsive records and to release any of them. These agencies – tasked with upholding the law – are violating the law by ignoring their statutory obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.
 
That is why PPSA is now suing these agencies. This time, they will have to respond – at least in court. We will alert you on any developments.

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