FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government

EFF's FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project aims to expose the government's expanding use of new technologies that invade Americans' privacy. Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the project helps to protect individual liberties and hold the government accountable.

National security and law enforcement demand some level of government secrecy, but too much secrecy enables abuses of power. The Justice Department's cell phone tracking without probable cause, the NSA's illegal spying program, and other recent privacy-invasive initiatives make this clear.

While radically enhancing its technological ability to monitor lawful activity and the details of our lives, the government has also actively attempted to limit public scrutiny in recent years. As one study found in 2005, government secrecy "continues to expand across a broad spectrum of activities, including the courts, new private inventions, and the scientific and technical advice the government receives."

The public deserves to know what the government is doing, so that it can keep abuses of power in check and challenge violations of privacy. To those ends, EFF submits requests under the Freedom of Information Act, a statute that forces the government to disclose details about its activities. Our requests focus on government collection and use of information about Americans, the increasing cooperation between the government and the private sector, and federal agencies' development and use of new information technologies. EFF makes this information available to the public, the media, and policymakers. EFF also strategically files FOIA lawsuits against government agencies to develop existing case law that will benefit all FOIA requesters.

Do you have an idea for a FOIA request EFF should make? If so, send a message to foia@eff.org.