Time to know what FBI has on you!

[Kirgiz]

Good day

Have you ever Tweeted a politically subversive message, attended a protest, or signed an oppositional petition? If so, you may have a dedicated file on you kept by the FBI and/or the NSA.

With a simple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, any U.S. citizen can obtain one's NSA or FBI file, if such a file exists.

While an appropriate level of cynicism may be warranted concerning the level of transparency one should expect from such a request – should your file be substantial – it is the law that your complete file be provided to you upon request.

Demand that the law be followed, for it is your right as a citizen to know this information.

Initially, I was going to post this article from the DailyKos and leave it at that but due to the vauge info from the article, I decided to supplement and transform this newsthread with much more information and also make it a little project we can all participate in.

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Under the Privacy Act you are entitled to obtain any information that any federal agency has obtained on you. If, for any reason your request is denied (wont happen to you; its extremely rare with FBI files), they must state why. Reasons for denial is usually because your file is part of an ongoing investigation or because releasing the information contravenes on the "interests of national security," either way it means you should probably get off the radar and/or flee the country because it's tantamount to being priorty #1.

You are not guaranteed to get shit. The vast majority of the people posting in this thread will end up having the agencies saying they've got nothing on file for you, which shouldn't come off as a surprise if all you do is sit at home and do nothing. But if you're such a narcissist that you actually think an agency is dying to know what you've been up to while browsing FP, then go for it.

If you're somewhat politically active (no matter how minor) and done something or been somewhere that you think would catch the eyes of the fed then you should probably try anyways, it doesn't hurt and it's your right. There's been many stories of people being shocked of how accurate an FBI file chronologically displayed someone's activities, or that merely being in that leftist club back in college was enough to warrant an FBI file. For example, an active feminist who requested her file, discovered in her 436-pages FBI doc the color of her hat she wore when she saw the Lord of Rings



  (above is an excerpt from her file, you can see more here)

You can send a request to any agency, but anything beyond the FBI would be unnecessary and unlikely to yield a file. If any agency were to retrieve a file for you, it'd be the FBI. 


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How do I get my file?

You must be a US Citizen. Yeah it sucks, and yeah it's likely that the CIA and NSA have loads of data on European citizens too, but there's nothing you can do about it.

For the FBI
- Fill out this extremely short form and then print it to sign it.
- Scan it, and send it to this email as an attachment: [email protected] with "Privacy Act request" as the subject

Though not required and somewhat redundant, you should probably include this in the email body anyways

And you're done!

The Privacy Act grants federal agencies permission to charge money for copying fees, but fees are never assessed so don't worry if you're broke, it's just good practice to leave the offer of payment there just in case. Even the chick  above who obtained 436 pages of herself offered to pay $30 to the FBI, but she ultimately was not required to pay a single cent for her files simply because it isn't worth the costs of billing you.

I'm not going to bother including the NSA or CIA because it's a waste of time. For one, the NSA enjoys special exemptions so your request will likely be denied with smugness. Two, the CIA requires that you print and stamp/mail it to them, is it worth the effort? They're not supposed to spy domestically anyways so it most likely yield no results for you. But if you insist, CIA and NSA instructions are hyperlinked.

Having traveled to several political hotspots across the globe and having also  been involved in political stuff domestically, I wouldn't be surprised  if my request did yield some results. I will bump this thread a few months later with my results, and you should too. Expect to recieve a confirmation in the mail a few weeks later after your request

Shamelessly stolen from facepunch, author Starpluck


Only for US citizens. Find out what FBI has on you
Post Merge: June 30, 2013, 01:04:04 amWoops move to speakerbox.

[Mikal]

Don't use twitter, don't use facebook, I prefer to use 'IRL' to communicate with people I know, all a load of myths and BS anyway.

[KhornateMonkey]

Don't use twitter, don't use facebook, I prefer to use 'IRL' to communicate with people I know, all a load of myths and BS anyway.

Do you make phone calls?

[Mikal]

Do you make phone calls?

No, I tie a letter to a pigeons foot. :razz:

[Manoni]

No, I tie a letter to a pigeons foot. :razz:

Orly 

[Jerry_M]

what about asian?