CNN reports that FOIA Online's recent upgrade to 3.0 allowed for personal information, including social security numbers to be released. CNN alerted the government to the release, which is referred to as a glitch by the government, and the personal information is no longer available.
FOIA Online is a FOIA portal for making FOIA requests - releases are also made through the portal. The site also is supposed to allow for requesters to see what has been previously released to others - so they don't have to make duplicate requests - but that function has been down since the July 9 upgrade to FOIA Online 3.0.
Additionally, as readers of the FOIA blog will recall, there are now two FOIA portals now operating - as FOIA.gov allows for requests to go through it as well (though it directs you to the agencies website). There has not been any publicly explained reason for two parallel portals being created. With limited funds, it seems to make more sense to pool all portal money and get one that works for all agencies (which I believe was the intent of Congress during the last FOIA overhaul).
Comments