Over the last decade, US government agencies have faced an increasing number of FOIA requests. According to the Office for Information Policy (OIP), 1.1 million FOIA requests were received by 120 public agencies in FY2023. This represented a nearly 30% year-over-year increase in such requests.
Complying with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-specific public record laws is not optional. Government agencies need to be able to capture and produce authenticated records within strict timeframes or face the consequences.
Accurate recordkeeping, timely management of open record requests, and ongoing transparency with the public helps to ensure each FOIA request process goes smoothly. To achieve this, government agencies need to look to FOIA request software.
However, digital archiving is one of the most important preparatory steps in the FOIA process. In this article, we’ll explore the synergy between archiving and FOIA request management.
Understanding FOIA Request Software
The primary role of FOIA request software is to help government agencies fulfil FOIA requests that satisfy legal criteria, within mandated timeframes.
Built to optimize and streamline the end-to-end process, FOIA request software may include the following functions:
- Intake and Triage: Centralized FOIA request capture across email, web forms, phone logs, and other sources.
- Case Management: Prioritizing requests, tracking deadlines, and managing workflows.
- Timeline Management: Automated deadlines and reminders to meet statutory response timelines.
- Advanced Search: Quick search and retrieval of documents across file systems, records repositories, and databases.
- Document Review & Redaction: Safe removal of material that falls under one of the nine categories of exemption.
- Chain of Custody: Audit trails and reporting for compliance oversight and legal defensibility..
In essence, FOIA software can manage the entire process of responding to formal requests. It helps government agencies optimize procedural compliance, reduce administrative workload, and improve transparency.
Note that not every FOIA software includes every necessary capability; your agency or department may need multiple platforms to manage requests.
What FOIA Request Software Does Not Do
FOIA request software usually does not automatically capture or preserve Electronically Stored Information (ESI). Since ESI includes public-facing digital content (like social media posts), responding to open records requests can be quite challenging when:
- A request seeks content that was previously publicly visible but was later removed or edited
- An agency needs to prove which information was available at a specific point in time
- There is a dispute over whether a post or a page was altered in the first place
While FOIA software can efficiently track a request, its effectiveness depends on relevant records being available and trustworthy.
The first FOIA laws may predate the digital-first era, but the rules leave no room for error. Without reliable preservation, agencies may struggle to locate records that no longer exist in live systems. This creates risks of incomplete responses, delayed fulfillment, or disputes over accuracy and authenticity.
That’s where archiving plays a pivotal role in addressing records capture and preservation.
Why Website and Social Media Archiving Matters
Comprehensive website and social media archiving solutions automatically capture public-facing digital content, creating immutable records of:
- Websites
- Social media posts, comments, and feeds
- Metadata such as timestamps, URLs, and content authorship
- Content changes, edits, and deletions
Though most do not manage requests or send relevant records to requesters, archiving tools ensure that records are stored in tamper-proof format, and that when a request arrives, records can then be easily retrieved.
The best digital archiving tools for government typically include:
- Automated real-time capture of website and social media content
- Version history, complete with side-by-side comparisons
- SHA-256 hashing, timestamping, and digital signatures for authenticity
- Advanced search for rapid retrieval of requested data
- Defensible export formats suitable for legal and compliance use
Digital Archiving Makes FOIA Responses Faster and Safer
Imagine you’re trying to respond to a FOIA request for a deleted Facebook post from three months ago. Without a proper archive, it’s nearly impossible to locate and produce these records in a complaint format. Screenshots are not the solution, as they can be easily manipulated, and they do not satisfy most of the requirements for record capture and storage mandated by FOIA and state open records laws.
Without archiving, there’s a significant risk not being able to fulfill FOIA requests. Automated archiving ensures:
- The content is captured and stored as an immutable record
- ESI is timestamped and hashed, ready for export in a defensible format
- Version comparisons are enabled for greater transparency
That translates into faster response times and great trust and transparency with the public. It also saves time and resources for staff handling FOIA requests, as they no longer need to scramble or rely on manual, inefficient records capture or production methods.
The Challenges of Using FOIA Request Software without Digital Archiving
When a government agency relies solely on FOIA request software without implementing digital archiving solutions, it can face significant challenges:
- Time and labor-intensive manual archiving and preservation
- Questions around the authenticity of the records
- Resource-heavy records location and review processes
- Increased risk of not being able to respond to FOIA requests
While FOIA software is essential for efficiency gains, it’s only as effective as the record it produces. Archiving is the preparatory solution that adds real value and is crucial in preventing public backlash, legal sanctions, withheld funding, and other potential penalties for non-compliance.
Best Practices for Government Agencies
Digital archiving and FOIA request software work in tandem. Both are a part of the FOIA and open record compliance architecture.
Agencies should take a dual approach to FOIA compliance that includes:
- Automated archiving: Automatically capture all public-facing content (web, social media channels, and others) in a WORM (write-once, read-many) format.
- Searchable indexing: Make archived content discoverable via full-text search, for dates, URLs or keywords.
- Self-serve public portals: Prioritize transparency and, where applicable, expose non-exempt archived materials via a public portal to reduce FOIA requests and free up staff.
Capture Content the Right Way From the Beginning
Pagefreezer’s website and social media archiving solution automates the recordkeeping process, capturing records in near real-time, including edited or deleted content, and making it easy to search, locate, review, and produce records quickly. All records are stored in tamper-proof format and include metadata and hash values.
Pagefreezer website archiving is also FedRAMP®-authorized, meaning we have been reviewed extensively and meet the highest US Government standard for security.
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Frequently Asked Questions about FOIA Requests
1. What is a FOIA request?
FOIA stands for the Freedom of Information Act (enacted in 1967). A FOIA request refers to the formal, documented request that citizens can submit to gain access to public records.
FOIA is a federal law that allows citizens, watchdogs, journalists, and other stakeholders with proper legal standing to request information from government agencies. The law was implemented to uphold accountability standards for more than 100 federal agencies. Granting access to the public, who may be interested in learning more about a government agency, is the primary benefit.
2. Can government agencies use open source FOIA request software?
Yes, government agencies can use open source software. Per the Federal Source Code Policy, federal agencies must share custom-developed source codes for use as Open Source Software (OSS). The U.S. government actively encourages and advocates the use of government-owned commercial software for FOIA request management.
However, the law does not explicitly require agencies to use OSS. In addition, agencies procuring OSS FOIA request software must comply with the usage mandates to reuse it.
3. Do FOIA requests apply to local governments?
FOIA requests only apply to federal agencies. However, local government institutions must comply with open records or “sunshine laws” that apply in their respective states or jurisdictions. As such, there are many similarities between FOIA and state or local open records laws.
4. Do different states have different FOIA laws?
States in the U.S. have their own set of open records laws, while FOIA applies only to federal agencies.
Often referred to as sunshine laws, these state records laws have different names, such as the California Public Records Act (CPRA), Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) in New York, and the Right-To-Know Law in Pennsylvania. Each state has unique exemption rules, mandated timelines, fees, and coverage scope.
