FOIA: DOJ's Investigative Data Warehouse

This Freedom of Information Act case seeks disclosure of FBI records concerning the scope and privacy impact of the Bureau’s Investigative Data Warehouse (“IDW”), a huge database that contains hundreds of millions of records containing personal information. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the FBI began development of the IDW “to provide counterterrorism investigators and analysts with quick, easy access to the full breadth of information relating to terrorism.” As of March 2005, the database contained more than 100 million pages of terrorism-related documents. The amount of information contained in the IDW appears to be growing at a tremendous rate. In May 2006, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III testified to Congress that the “IDW now contains over 560 million FBI and other agency documents.” Despite the vast amount of personal information contained in the IDW, the FBI has never published a Privacy Act notice describing the system or explaining the ways in which the records might be used.

See EFF's full report for more information.