FOIA

Office of the Director of National Intelligence - Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act

The goal of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act Office is to keep the public better informed about the Agency’s efforts to ensure U.S. security through the release of as much information as possible, consistent with the need to protect classified or sensitive information under the exemption provisions of these laws.

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. sec. 552 (as amended by the OPEN Government Act of 2007, Pub. L. No. 110-175, 121 Stat. 2524) generally provides that any person (with the exception of another Federal agency, a fugitive from the law, or a representative of a foreign government) has the right, enforceable in court, to request access to any existing record of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government unless the information in those records is protected from disclosure by one or more of the nine exemptions that qualify an agency’s need to withhold records from the public.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) acts in accordance to all Federal laws and adheres to the policy and disclosure regulations set forth in 32 CFR Chapter XVII Part 1700 to implement the FOIA uniformly and consistently and to provide maximum allowable disclosure of agency records upon request.  

Records that, generally, may be protected from disclosure are:  (1) properly classified material; (2) limited kinds of purely internal agency personnel rules and practices; (3) matters exempt from disclosure by other statutes; (4) trade secrets or commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential; (5) inter- or intra- agency communications that represent the deliberative, pre-decisional process, attorney work product, or attorney-client privileged records; (6) personnel, medical, and similar files containing information that would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; (7) law enforcement records to the extent that one of six specific harms could result from disclosure; (8) matters relating to the regulation or supervision of financial institutions; and (9) geological and geophysical information on oil wells.

The FOIA provides for access to “reasonably described” records.  This means a requester must describe the actual document(s) sought to provide sufficient details to permit a search with reasonable effort utilizing existing indices or search tools.  The FOIA does not require an agency to create a record, collect information, conduct research, or analyze data. 

Privacy Act

The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. Sec. 552a) regulates the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personal information by federal executive branch agencies to balance the government's need to maintain information about individuals with the rights of individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasions of their privacy. 

The Act focuses on four basic policy objectives:

(1) To restrict disclosure of personally identifiable records maintained by agencies;
(2) To grant individuals increased rights of access to agency records maintained on themselves;
(3) To grant individuals the right to seek amendment of agency records maintained on themselves upon a showing that the records are not accurate, relevant, timely, or complete; and
(4) To establish a code of "fair information practices" which requires agencies to comply with statutory norms for collection, maintenance, and dissemination of records.

Similar to the FOIA, the Privacy Act provides individuals with the right to seek access to agency records.  However, under the Privacy Act, an individual (defined as a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien) may only seek access to his/her own record, or to any information pertaining to him/her, if such information is maintained by an agency within a Privacy Act system of records and is not exempt from release under the provisions of the law.  In addition, any requests to amend an agency record are limited to correcting factual errors and not matters of official judgement, such as performance ratings, or subjective judgements that reflect an individual’s observation, evaluation or opinion.
 
Requests for information under the FOIA or PA

To obtain records from the ODNI, a FOIA or PA request may be submitted in writing to:

Jennifer L. Hudson
Chief, Information and Data Management Group
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20511

A request may also be submitted in writing via facsimile to:  (703) 874-8910, or via e-mail to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To obtain the status of a request or ask a question about the FOIA/PA process, you may call the ODNI FOIA Requester Service Center at (703) 874-8500, or you can email your inquiry to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

FOIA Documents
ODNI FOIA Handbook
FOIA Regulations

ODNI FOIA Log (2006-March 2011)