[andrewxdiamond]

> access to unclassified data in every government agency.

Is this even meaningful? We have the FoIA, can’t any company acquire unclassified data any time they want?

I suppose it’s an ease-of-access thing, but for a large corp it seems you would be constantly data mining the government with FoIA requests.

[darth_avocado]

Having actually talked to people who have filed FoIA requests, it’s actually near impossible to get things from the government if they don’t want to share it with you.

First the requests have to be narrow and specific. You can’t just be “give me everything you have on xyz”. Then they can very much drag on the process forever by going back and forth on how narrow the specifics need to be. Then there’s the issue of a wide range of documents that are not covered under FoIA. And then finally even if you manage to request the documents correctly and they are covered under FoIA, sometimes they simply don’t have them. This is amazingly common when FoIA activists try to get budget and spending related documents.

[greyface-]

They can also simply ignore your request, and force you to take them to court in order to get a response. There's little downside in doing this, especially against small requestors. This happens with some regularity, and is known as "constructive denial".

[mmooss]

> I suppose it’s an ease-of-access thing

In a sense, that is much of what computers are - ease of access. What's the difference between millions of of paper documents in a warehouse, and a live database with the same information instantly accessible, processable, etc.? I suppose it's just 'ease of access'.

But it is all the difference in the world. One does not compare to the other. FOIA requests - which take paperwork, must specify the thing requested, and sometimes years to resolve - don't compare to live access to the databases and applications and personnel.

[prpl]

Imagine a pharmacy.

Some things are over the counter and others behind the counter.

It’s the difference between being a customer and working behind the counter

[jfengel]

There's a lot that you can't get via FOIA. You can't just go on a fishing expedition. A lot of stuff is unclassified but personal, and restricted.

This potentially gives you access to everything. Such access is supposed to be about the system itself and not the data within (just like your sysadmin can theoretically look at your files but promised not to). But hey, who's watching, and to whom would they complain?