3 ms·
There actually is a totally separate debate to be had on the topic of public records and communications by elected officials. Under federal law, all communicat
by gingerbread-man 10y ago
There actually is a totally separate debate to be had on the topic of public records and communications by elected officials.
Under federal law, all communications to which a federal employee is a party constitute public records. Obviously, that doesn't mean they are all publically available; white house emails, for example, have traditionally been released several decades following the end of the administration. (With redactions, of course.)
Today, congressional staffers and politicians at every level use private email accounts and cell phones to subvert public disclosure, and by extension, public accountability. Even when the political or security sensitivity of such records is long gone, historians will likely never be able to track them down or study them.
EDIT: Congress is specifically granted an exemption to most of the public records laws that apply to the executive branch, including FOIA.
- samirillian 10y agoCitation?
- Alex3917 10y agoWatch the #archemail symposium videos from the library of congress.[1] For FOIA a lot of the emails actually do eventually go on the web. But with private individuals, when they donate their email correspondence you can almost always only read them on one computer in one specific university library. But yeah, even when documents are supposed to go on the web there are often gaps. E.g. Hillary Clinton basically hired folks to steal documents about her legislative record from the library of congress. [1] http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/archivingemailsymposium.html http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/archivingemailsy...
- gingerbread-man 10y agoAt the federal level: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/congress-rules-saving-emails/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/congress-rules-saving-em... A local example from San Jose: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-public-officials-email-20170302-story.html http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-public-officials...
- lukifer 10y agoWith all the hubbub surrounding Russia and DNC's leaked emails, and who talked to who when over the last year, I wonder if we'll start to see all political players incentivized to embrace encrypted communications. While messages will still inevitably leak (compromised endpoints, human factors), perhaps we will never see the like of '16-'17 again (doubly so if Russia proves to be 45's undoing).
- uoaei 10y agoThey certainly already are.[1] The double-edged sword of encryption is that anyone can use it. With the recent paranoia of leaks, politicians now have a legitimized cover story for the use of apps like Signal, Confide, and the like. [1] http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/9/14561786/confide-messaging-republican-gop-trump-administration-leaks http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/9/14561786/confide-messaging-...