FOIA - Chicago - SafeGraph COVID-19 Tracking (Chicago Department of Public Health)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act., I hereby request the following records:

All documents pertaining to SafeGraph (https://www.safegraph.com/). Documents being requested include - but are not limited to - the following:

- Invoices, receipts, and/or requests for the purchase of any SafeGraph product/service
- MOUs from SafeGraph
- Brochures or product/service specifications regarding SafeGraph
- Privacy and/or retention policies regarding SafeGraph product/services
- Any/all manuals regarding SafeGraph product/services
- Any presentations (PowerPoint documents, slides, and/or video/audio presentations) regarding SafeGraph product/services
- Guidelines mentioning SafeGraph product/services
- Bulletins mentioning SafeGraph product/services
- Briefings mentioning SafeGraph product/services
- Memos mentioning SafeGraph product/services
- Any/all digitally disseminated publications from your agency mentioning SafeGraph product/services

To aid in recovering responsive documents, please see the following news article mentioning the City's use of SafeGraph products/services: https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/15/21222472/covid-19-chicago-making-strides-against-coronavirus-data-shows (archived version - https://archive.is/ZLv5c )

An excerpt from the article reads: "..the new data released by the city is the use of mobile devices to track and determine that Chicagoans are, for the most part, adhering to the stay-at-home order. Lightfoot and Arwady said the information was provided by the risk software company BlueDot through the data collection company SafeGraph. They characterized it as “anonymous” data gathered from users of mobile device applications who agreed to let certain applications track their locations.

“We don’t know, nor would we get, specific information about cell phone users,” Lightfoot explained. “So I don’t think there’s any privacy issues. And it’s dependent upon one’s use of applications and then allowing access related to location.”

Arwady said potentially “hundreds of thousands” of mobile devices were tracked as part of the study. A check-in occurred on each of those phones every half-hour, she explained. The study assumed the device’s most common location between midnight and 9 a.m. was its “home.”"

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

J Ader

Miss Hernandez,

I respectfully decline the additional time to respond to my request here. I understand that doing so would allow a "reset of the clock" in terms of allowance for additional extensions on your agency's behalf.

I am denying additional time ultimately to secure my right to access records under the FOIA statute and facilitate the release of this information to the general public. I believe these documents to be imperative to public inspection.

Regards,
- J. Ader