Privacy group tackles US government on e-spying

The EFF hopes to show the extent of government monitoring of electronic communications

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a campaign to shed light on the US government's electronic surveillance programmes. 

The EFF is using the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) as a springboard to introduce information requests and litigation that it hopes will show the extent of government monitoring of web, email and other electronic communications.

David Sobel, senior counsel on the FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government project, said that the investigations are at the early stages.

"The first step is initialising our very early requests and in the first month we might be filing some lawsuits based on lack of response," he told vnunet.com. 

The EFF aims to uncover surveillance, database and data mining activities by the US government in recent years.

Sobel claims to have already contacted the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education. 

"It is a fairly wide variety, particularly in a post 9/11 world where the government is interested in collecting and analysing large amounts of information," said Sobel.

Passed by congress in 1966, the Freedom Of Information Act calls for the public availability of all records kept by government agencies.

The legislation allows for exemptions such as trade secrets, matters of national security and individuals' private information.