Comment by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF

2 months ago

> where the only way to get at the underlying data is to FOIA a database query

Was this ever attempted?

  SELECT * FROM `information_schema`.`tables`;

10 comments

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF

chaps 2 months ago

Yep, that was done in the FOIA request related to this lawsuit:

  select utc.column_name as colname, uo.object_name as tablename, utc.data_type as type
  from user_objects uo
  join user_tab_columns utc on uo.object_name = utc.table_name
  where uo.object_type = 'TABLE'

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/chicago-169/canvas-database-sch...

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2 months ago
Yeah, it's obvious the double standard here, then. Curious indeed why they are so adamant to keep the schema/data secret.
- kelnos 2 months ago
  
  Because they know that eventually the data contained in that table is going to be used to support some sort of lawsuit that their parking enforcement activity is biased, and is targeting people of color.
  It's already ridiculous that they spent several years blocking this request while it went through court. If the plaintiffs spoke to pretty much anyone involved in maintaining the system, or with any of their internal infosec people, they would know that there's no real security risk to releasing this information.
  They've already spent orders of magnitude more time and money litigating the issue than it would take to just release the information in the first place, so this is clearly not a cost or resourcing issue.
  They don't want to release it because they'd prefer it's secret, because secrecy makes it harder for the public to hold them accountable. That's all.
  
  1 reply →
- noboostforyou 2 months ago
  
  I said in another comment but I suspect the column names themselves are incriminating (basically saying this person doesn't get a ticket because they are in a special club, that's probably not technically legal)
  
  1 reply →
- qingcharles 2 months ago
  
  Public bodies tend to just want to resist FOIAs for the sake of resisting them. I've never really been able to fully understand the motivations, even after a decade of FOIA litigation.
  
  3 replies →