All e-mails between the Social Security Administration and Ancestry.com

This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/submissionDetails?trackingNumber=SSA-2022-010620&type=request)

* Tracking Number: SSA-2022-010620
* Requester Name:
Brooke Schreier Ganz
* Date Submitted: 05/31/2022
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description:
To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Brooke Schreier Ganz. I represent a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called Reclaim The Records. We are an activist group of genealogists, historians, journalists, and open government advocates. We acquire genealogical and historical data sets and images from government sources, often through the use of Freedom of Information laws. We then upload those records to the Internet, making them freely available to the public and returning them to the public domain.

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Reclaim The Records hereby requests the following records:

All e-mails or other communications between the Social Security Administration and the commercial genealogy company Ancestry.com, including all attachments to those e-mails, from the date January 1, 2000 up until the date that this request is processed.

This includes all e-mails where the following domain names, including all subdomains, might be found in the "to" or "from" or "cc" or "bcc" fields in the e-mail metadata:

a. ancestry.com
b. findagrave.com
c. fold3.com
d. genealogy.com
e. newspapers.com
f. progenealogists.com
g. archives.com

For non-email communications, Ancestry might be referred to as Ancestry, Ancestry.com, or for older communications their previous name The Generations Network or TGN.

This is explicitly *not* a request with the clause "related to ancestry.com"; this request is based very specifically on the identity of one party, not on the content of the communications. All communications to/from/cc/bcc these entities are included, regardless of content.

Please note that we have given your agency multiple pieces of information to limit your search here: the specific company name, the specific to/from/cc/bcc e-mail metadata fields to be searched, the specific domain names to be searched for within those four metadata fields, and the specific timeframe to be searched. And we have also clearly specified two pieces of data to be produced from that search: the communications or e-mails themselves, as well as their attachments (if any). We have not mentioned the specific SSA employee e-mail mailboxes or files that will need to be searched, because there is no way for us to know the full set of those employees' names in the first place. Your agency can still perform our search using the criteria provided. We recognize that it will take some time for you to search your agency's entire communication or e-mail corpus for the data that we provided, but that is not an excuse for your agency not to provide the records at all.

We request that these files be turned over to us in their original digital format, if possible. We would prefer to receive them through online file transfer, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, but are also willing to receive them on a portable USB drive if that is easier for you, and we are willing to pay the costs for purchasing that drive and for its insured and trackable domestic shipping, as well as any fees associated with fulfilling this request. Please inform us of all fees in advance of fulfilling our order.

We also request to be treated as a "media requester" for the purposes of calculating the fees for this FOIA request. We are a non-profit organization, not a commercial entity. We do not charge for copies of any of the tens of millions of records we have already acquired from government agencies and released to the public. We are one of the largest open records organizations in the United States. As of October 1, 2020, our e-mail newsletter, which has been published several times a year for the past six years, now has a circulation of over 7,500 subscribers. Our social media outlets such as our Facebook page have more than 11,000 followers, and our Twitter account has more than 6,100 followers.

We have even created several free standalone websites to both disseminate and discuss the data that we receive from government entities. As just one example, please see our website https://www.MissouriDeathIndex.com/ and our multiple associated newsletter issues linked from that website. We don't just release data sets, we discuss them too, using our editorial skills and discretion, and then disseminate those discussions to our readers.

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

Therefore, under 45 CFR 1602.2, we believe that we properly meet the legal qualifications as a "media requester" entity, and so we would need to pay only any duplication fees after the first 100 pages of material, and we should not need to pay any search fees or review fees.

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

Sincerely,

Brooke Schreier Ganz, on behalf of Reclaim The Records
https://www.ReclaimTheRecords.org/

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/

Ms. Ganz,
This letter is regarding your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request: SSA-2022-010620.  Please provide clarification regarding the emails you requested. Before we can provide a fee estimate, we must know if you are requesting specific Social Security Administration (SSA) employee emails, or all email communications generated by the SSA.  If your request is for all email communications generated by SSA, and you do not specify employees, your fee estimate will be extremely high.  I will respond to your request for a fee waiver in a separate letter.  If you can provide employee names and job titles for specific employee emails you would like searched; it’s likely your fee estimate will be much lower.
Please do not reply directly to this email correspondence.  If you have an account with FOIAonline, you can correspond directly with us by logging into your account.  If you need to correspond with us regarding your FOIA request but do not have an account with FOIAonline, please send your correspondence to FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov.  The FOIA Public Liaison mailbox was created to assist the public with their FOIA requests, as well as to provide assistance to individuals requesting access to their own records under the Privacy Act.  When you email this mailbox, we encourage you to limit the amount of personally identifiable information you provide in your email correspondence.  While SSA operates within a secure network, we have no control of the data we receive while it is in transit to or from our FOIA Public Liaison mailbox.  Please include your FOIA tracking number in your email. (mailto:FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov)
Sincerely,
The FOIA Team
Social Security Administration

Ms. Ganz -
This letter is regarding your request for a fee waiver in FOIA Case: SSA-2022-010620.  Our response to your request can be found in the attached letter.
Please do not reply directly to this email correspondence.  If you have an account with FOIAonline, you can correspond directly with us by logging into your account.  If you need to correspond with us regarding your FOIA request but do not have an account with FOIAonline, please send your correspondence to FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov.  The FOIA Public Liaison mailbox was created to assist the public with their FOIA requests, as well as to provide assistance to individuals requesting access to their own records under the Privacy Act.  When you email this mailbox, we encourage you to limit the amount of personally identifiable information you provide in your email correspondence.  While SSA operates within a secure network, we have no control of the data we receive while it is in transit to or from our FOIA Public Liaison mailbox.  Please include your FOIA tracking number in your email. (mailto:FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov)
Sincerely,
The FOIA Team
Social Security Administration

Your request for Fee Waiver for the FOIA request SSA-2022-010620 has been
denied.

* Fee Waiver Original Justification:
This request is a qualified request for journalistic, public interest purposes. As such, we request fully waived fees, including both public interest fee waiver and journalistic fee waiver: 1. Reclaim The Records (RTR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, organized for charitable, educational, scientific, and/or literary purposes. This request is a part of RTR's bona fide educational and scientific purpose activities, which are public interest purposes as a matter of law. 2. RTR's actions in matters such as this request are non-commercial. 3. Both RTR as an organization, and I as an individual, are representatives of the news media and entitled to waiver of all search fees. 4. We intend and are able to host and publish all received records online to the general public at no charge, as well to publish highlights, analyses, summaries, commentaries, and other creative, original journalistic and scientific work about responsive records through multiple online publications, including our mailing lists and social media presence, as part of RTR's work. 5. The records requested are of significant public interest, entitled to waiver of all duplication fees, since a. they are requested for 501(c)(3) public interest purposes; b. as above, we both are able and intend to disseminate the files widely; c. they would contribute greatly to the public understanding of the operations and activities of your agency, in that they are records that directly describe agency operations and activities, as well as the issues and matters described at the top of this letter; d. they are not currently readily available; and e. they are likely to be requested by others.
* Fee Waiver Disposition Reason:
Does not meet our requirements for a fee waiver.

Ms. Ganz,
This letter is regarding your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request: SSA-2022-010620.  We sent you a request for clarification on June 1, 2022.  You have 5 days to respond to our request for clarification or your request will be closed.  Please provide clarification regarding the emails you requested. Before we can provide a fee estimate, we must know if you are requesting specific Social Security Administration (SSA) employee emails, or all email communications generated by the SSA.  If your request is for all email communications generated by SSA, and you do not specify employees, your fee estimate will be extremely high.  I will respond to your request for a fee waiver in a separate letter.  If you can provide employee names and job titles for specific employee emails you would like searched; it’s likely your fee estimate will be much lower.  Please do not reply directly to this email correspondence.  If you have an account with FOIAonline, you can correspond directly with us by logging into your account.  If you need to correspond with us regarding your FOIA request but do not have an account with FOIAonline, please send your correspondence to FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov .  The FOIA Public Liaison mailbox was created to assist the public with their FOIA requests, as well as to provide assistance to individuals requesting access to their own records under the Privacy Act.  When you email this mailbox, we encourage you to limit the amount of personally identifiable information you provide in your email correspondence.  While SSA operates within a secure network, we have no control of the data we receive while it is in transit to or from our FOIA Public Liaison mailbox.  Please include your FOIA tracking number in your email.       Sincerely, The FOIA Team Social Security Administration

Ms. Ganz,
This letter is regarding your FOIA request: SSA-2022-010620.  I sent you a fee waiver denial letter and I am following-up to determine how you would like to proceed with this request.  Our search for the records you requested would require a lot of manpower and be extremely time-consuming resulting in a high fee notice.  You may modify or narrow your request or we can send you a fee notice for the initial request you submitted.  You have 10 days to respond to this request or your FOIA request will be closed.
Please do not reply directly to this email correspondence.  If you have an account with FOIAonline, you can correspond directly with us by logging into your account.  If you need to correspond with us regarding your FOIA request but do not have an account with FOIAonline, please send your correspondence to FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov.  The FOIA Public Liaison mailbox was created to assist the public with their FOIA requests, as well as to provide assistance to individuals requesting access to their own records under the Privacy Act.  When you email this mailbox, we encourage you to limit the amount of personally identifiable information you provide in your email correspondence.  While SSA operates within a secure network, we have no control of the data we receive while it is in transit to or from our FOIA Public Liaison mailbox.  Please include your FOIA tracking number in your email. (mailto:FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov)
Sincerely,
The FOIA Team
Social Security Administration

Dear Brooke Schreier Ganz:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) completed our processing of your request, SSA-2022-010620.  Our response is attached. Please do notreply directly to this email correspondence.  If you need to correspondwith us regarding your FOIA request, please send your correspondence to .  TheFOIA Public Liaison mailbox was created to assist the public with their FOIArequests, as well as to provide assistance to individuals requesting access totheir own records under the Privacy Act.  When you email thismailbox, we encourage you to limit the amount of personally identifiableinformation you provide in your email correspondence.  While SSAoperates within a secure network, we have no control of the data we receivewhile it is in transit to or from our FOIA Public Liaisonmailbox.  Please include your FOIA tracking number in youremail. (mailto:FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov) FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov Sincerely, The FOIA Team Social Security Administration

Dear Brooke Schreier Ganz:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) completed our processing of your request, SSA-2022-010620.  Our response is attached. Please do notreply directly to this email correspondence.  If you need to correspondwith us regarding your FOIA request, please send your correspondence to .  TheFOIA Public Liaison mailbox was created to assist the public with their FOIArequests, as well as to provide assistance to individuals requesting access totheir own records under the Privacy Act.  When you email thismailbox, we encourage you to limit the amount of personally identifiableinformation you provide in your email correspondence.  While SSAoperates within a secure network, we have no control of the data we receivewhile it is in transit to or from our FOIA Public Liaisonmailbox.  Please include your FOIA tracking number in youremail. (mailto:FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov) FOIA.Public.Liaison@ssa.gov Sincerely, The FOIA Team Social Security Administration