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| Science & Technology |
| DC Circuit Orders FBI To Use Google |
| 2006-08-22 |
| The D.C. Circuit today criticized the FBI for failing to use Google in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which requires government agencies to release information unless "reasonable efforts" show that the information is not available to the public. The case involved a request for 35 year-old tapes recorded during a Lousiana mob investigation. The FBI claimed that they could refuse to release the tapes under an exception to FOIA which allows information to be withheld when it could "reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal property." According to the FBI, release of the tapes would invade the privacy of the persons taped. As the court explained, a person's interest in their own privacy is "diminished where the individual is deceased," and thus the FBI's right to refuse disclosure of the tapes hinged upon whether or not they made reasonable efforts to determine if the people on the tape were dead. The court found the FBI's efforts lacking: Why, in short, doesn’t the FBI just Google the two names? Surely, in the Internet age, a “reasonable alternative” for finding out whether a prominent person is dead is to use Google (or any other search engine) to find a report of that person’s death.10 Moreover, while finding a death notice for the second speaker -- the informant -- may be harder (assuming that he was not prominent), Googling also provides ready access to hundreds of websites collecting obituaries from all over the country, any one of which might resolve that speaker’s status as well. As Howard Bashman notes there's no word yet on whether the FBI has to use Wikipedia. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 They just blew their last 150 some million attempt to use computers and are now spending 480 mil to try again. They are COMPUTER MORONS! Make them take the DVD based pre-101 courses we see advertised on TV every 10 mins after mid-night. Or even worse COMPUTERS FOR IDIOTS! To retarded to use google or even know what IRC and USENET are let alone HTML or FTP or TELNET. They are in the mid 60's for computer literacy. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-08-22 23:03 |
| #2 Um...it might be just a bit difficult for the FBI to do this if they still have the 386-based PCs they were using around the time of 9/11. I remember reading somewhere that Louis Freeh was a serious technophobe, and this is yet another thing that Mueller hasn't done jackshit about since taking over. |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2006-08-22 22:28 |
| #1 Of course when they act on a death notice for the wrong John Smith they will be lambasted for using Google. Judges shouldn't make public policy of any kind. Period. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-08-22 22:28 |