3 ms·
This was definitely not my first rodeo and I like to think I've done a good job in acting in good faith in future similar instances [1] for example. Every time
by chaps 3y ago
This was definitely not my first rodeo and I like to think I've done a good job in acting in good faith in future similar instances [1] for example. Every time I've reported something, the other side acts differently every single time. Sometimes they're friendly, sometimes they put out obvious traps ("prove it that you found HIPAA sensitive info"), and sometimes they're just thankful it didn't go worse.
You gotta realize that we live in a world where people have been prosecuted for using nmap. So we have to ride a fine line between careful and aggressive.
I don't expect this to be a thing that stops happening as I continue sending FOIAs. Recently a police agency released to me thousands of social security numbers from ALPR scans (of all things). When I reported it, they shrugged us off and asked us to redact the documents ourselves. When we refused (why would I accept that liability) to, they redacted more, but left in about 800 more SSNs.
[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/3aqagy/contractor-exposed-the-movements-of-people-wearing-ankle-gps-bracelets https://www.vice.com/en/article/3aqagy/contractor-exposed-th...
- legitster 3y agoI get it. But as someone who has worked a lot of helpdesk and customer service roles in my life, all I can do is whinge. These departments clearly do not have the processes or experience to respond correctly, so the brunt of the pain is going to fall on inexperienced and overworked public servants whose whole job is to be harassed by citizens. So please be nice!
- chaps 3y agoHeh, the city called me a good samaritan for acting in good faith, plus completely redid their entire process afterwards, including escalation paths to make this sort of thing less aggressive and conflict oriented in the future. So, uh, I'm honestly not sure what to say when things ultimately ended up better in the end. And fwiw, I've worked at a high volume help desk too.
- qingcharles 3y agoThat's basically the opposite of the City of Chicago who did pretty much everything they could do behind the scenes to frustrate and ridicule you just for asking for some public information.
- gopher_space 3y agoYour Seattle exchange makes perfect sense when you connect the people and the tech. You're using web3 thinking to interface with people using web2 tools to manipulate web1 software reading data from web0 systems. Sending and receiving info through this system is sometimes literally a game of telephone, but the translation steps will be set in stone. E.g. Your email sent to IT was routed, unread, to another department. That department starts their rudimentary FOIA process which includes submitting IT-Request-4 regarding your specific date and field range. IT-Request-4 does not come with context. Seattle's IT department now specs out adding fields to a production database and adding your custom export to the end-of-day batch. They spec out additional hosting costs because IT-Request-4 was designed as a way to create data pipelines. At this point there are only three people involved and they each have a different view on what's happening due to a knowledge gap. You could eliminate this (imho) by providing motivation and context in your initial request. I wonder how these exchanges would look if you sent a 'pre-FOIA' heads up to specific departments in a city, introducing yourself as conducting a large-scale survey of FOIA processes and letting them know your request will revolve around a year's worth of email metadata. It feels like this could be a more collaborative process.
- dfc 3y agoWhat is the web3 thinking?
- iosguyryan 3y agoRunning out of funding for duplicative small ideas.