
I’m suing the US government for its data on who’s entering the country - dthal
http://qz.com/685956/im-suing-the-us-government-for-its-data-on-whos-entering-the-country/
======
vonklaus
> That argument misinterprets public records laws and is betrayed by its own
> logical conclusion: All it would take for the US government to prevent the
> disclosure of any information would be to place a high price tag on it. That
> clearly contradicts the intent of FOIA, which entitles the public to access
> all kinds of government records.

This is the only argument needed to persuade me that this is worth litigating
and fighting for. The government is the only entity which can really aggregate
this data. It is funded by tax payers. If it is not a matter of national
security; which it isn't as it is sold openly, it should be free to the tax
payer which foots the bill for its collection. It would be harrowing if FOIA
requests cost 4-6 figures...

~~~
adanto6840
I completely agree.

I've been part of an organization that sent numerous FOIA requests out via our
legal team, mostly to smaller county or city level agencies.

In some cases City A would respond (San Fransisco was in this bucket) and say:
"Sure, we'll have it by X! What email address should we send the data to?"

In other cases (a few agencies in Hawaii come to mind), for the _exact same
dataset / FOIA request_ \-- in fact, with an order of magnitude fewer
responsive data records -- the agency would require payment in the amount of
$100,000+. True story, first-hand experience...

~~~
vonklaus
wow. how did you handle those 100k demands? what was the outcome?

------
bpchaps
Man... when I contacted journalists about writing an article about my lawsuit
against Chicago for the mayor's phone records, they all told me "tell us when
you're done." and wouldn't touch it with ten foot pole. Very strange to see
this getting attention after all that. That said, this is friggin' awesome.
Best of luck to him!

My suit was eventually dropped after the judge essentially told Chicago to
JFGI after their claims of burden in checking if a number is in public domain
was costing the city a fortune and burden. It just took six months to get to
that point and a year and a half in total...

Thankfully, I found a good reporter who's very interested in writing for me.
My writing skills are just too shite for anything that public. :)

------
sndean
One of Fivethirtyeight's podcasts had Yanofsky on recently:

[http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-to-access-
gover...](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-to-access-government-
data-on-immigration-only-173775/)

------
yuhong
I am thinking that FOIA and similar laws should be more specific on which
kinds of data are considered public record.

~~~
abustamam
I feel like any data that are funded via tax payer dollars should be public
record.

