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- Title
PROTECTING THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTOR: PRIVACY FOR INFORMATION SEEKERS.
- Authors
Lamdan, Sarah Shik
- Abstract
Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") requests are major instruments of American democracy and a primary means for assuring government transparency. Obtaining government information is a basic right of American citizens. Unfortunately, this right is jeopardized by an absence of privacy for FOIA requestors. Current laws lack mechanisms to prevent the release of FOIA requestors' personal information and the substantive contents of their requests. Once outside of requestors' hands, the contents of FOIA requests can be used to invade requestors' private lives, and requestors' information can even become a tool of persecution in situations where the requests deal with controversial materials and issues. Leaving requestors' information unprotected threatens to deter people from utilizing the FOIA. This article explains the insidious nature of the current FOIA scheme on requestors' privacy, describes successful models for requestor privacy protection and proposes that either the FOIA or the Privacy Act of 1974 be amended to protect requestors' privacy rights, and discusses the benefits and potential pitfalls of each approach.
- Subjects
UNITED States; FREEDOM of Information Act (U.S.); CONSTITUTIONAL amendments; RIGHT of privacy; AMERICANS; TRANSPARENCY in government; POLITICAL persecution; DEMOCRACY
- Publication
Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, 2012, Vol 21, Issue 2, p221
- ISSN
1055-8942
- Publication type
Article