Emerald Onion's request about USG Tor usage 20200301 (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Our office extends to you the hope of continued safety and wellness.

We have attached your NGA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Acknowledgement Letter for reference. Your request was identified as NGA-2020-FOI-00026.

From the end of March until recently, our office yielded to the Department of Defense's Health Protection Condition (HPCON) level notice; which required our offices to be manned by mission-essential personnel only. Our FOIA staff was unable to handle requests sent via traditional methods and could only respond to electronic inquiries within a telework posture.

A very small portion (25%) of our staff have returned to office space this week to regain processing capacity. We ask for your patience as we re-engage our cases. Please check in for progress at any time.

Thank you.

V/r
Augustus

Augustus Simms
FOIA/PA Program Manager
Information Management
Security and Installations Directorate
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
571-557-4141

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Our office extends continued health and wellness wishes to you and yours.

At this time based on current health impacts to our process, it is difficult to nail down a specific time for your desired response. We do follow a "first in-first out" pathway; which has us working to catch up on many requests that COVID-19 delayed. Please know that we are working to get back on track against the challenges that continue to press in on our FOIA process.

Thank you.

V/r
Augustus

Augustus Simms
FOIA/PA Program Manager
Information Management
Security and Installations Directorate
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
571-557-4141

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
======================================================

Good day Mr. Sheats,

We hope this message continues to find you safe and well.

At this time, we continue to work through our FOIA processing queue to arrive at your request. We recognize and appreciate your patience.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Our office hopes this message continues to find you safe and well.

We continue working with limited mission-essential personnel and maximizing the use of telework. We apologize for a longer than usual process and ask for your continued patience. As you know, It is has been a real challenge with the pandemic across all government agencies. Please know, we are working to deliver results to support your FOIA request (NGA-2020-FOI-00026).

Thank you.

NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Sheats,

Our office hopes this message continues to find you safe and well.

Reduced access to staff and information continue to limit our production capacities during the current health pandemic. Please continue to check in with us.

Thank you.

NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Currently, there are numerous requests in line within our active processing queue. We continue to follow a "first in-first out" pathway per DoD requirements, and work against COVID-19's impact on available personnel. We realize the longer than usual process and continue to ask for your patience.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Per continued efforts to complete previous submissions to March 2020, we project processing action on your request within 90 days.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Due to the scope of your request, our efforts continue to gather the information responsive to your request. We will provide updates as they become available.

Thank you Sir.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Thank you for contacting the NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center.

Due to subject time-span and scope, we expect to take more time to develop information responsive to your request. We will provide periodic updates to keep you informed. Your patience is appreciated.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Thank you for contacting the NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center.

Status; there are 22 FY20 requests processing ahead of yours. Our office expects your place in the queue to move up each time a status is provided. Your patience is appreciated.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Thank you for contacting the NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center.

Status; we are down to 18 FY20 requests processing ahead of yours along with numerous requests associated with previous years. Please regard this status as a way to track the progress of your request toward completion.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,
Thank you for contacting the NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center.

Status; there are 22 17 FY20 requests processing ahead of yours along with other cases from previous years. Please continue to regard this status as a way to track the progress of your request toward completion.
Thank you.
V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Thank you for contacting the NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center.

We expect to actively work on your request during the next 30 days. We will continue to keep you apprised with updates.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding your FOIA Request (NGA-2020-FOI-00026).

Our office is actively working on your request. From this point on, we will provide you process updates until we release a final response. We realize the overall process has taken some time. Your patience has been appreciated.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

Thank you for contacting our office.

We are receiving information from NGA's office components, and expect to gain all responses within the next 7 to 10 days; with respect to the holiday and available personnel. We anticipate delivery within the next 2 weeks after we have everything. Should anything change, we will provide an update.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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Good day Mr. Sheats,

The NGA FOIA team is working to respond to your request for Information:

"Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records: Copies of internal presentations, reports, studies, memorandum, or proposals created or received by National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency concerning software developed by The Tor Project, Inc., including but not limited to:

- Tor

- Tor Browser

- Tor bridges

- Tor onion sites (v2 or v3, sometimes called "darkweb" or "darknet" sites)

- Tor onion services (v2 or v3, sometimes called "hidden services")

- Tor bandwidth authorities or directory authorities

- Tor pluggable transports (obfs4, meek, ScrambleSuit, etc)

- Tor relays (also known as "routers" or "nodes", sometimes called "guard", "middle", or "exit" relays)

Please limit this request to documents from 2010-January-01 through the date the search for responsive records is conducted. In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not."

Our component office(s) are finding voluminous documentation and information based on your request elements, and estimate a significant amount of time to gather/transfer to our office for FOIA processing. We wanted to ask if you would consider narrowing the scope of your request to reduce overall processing time. Please let us know if you have questions, concerns, and/or recommendations.

Thank you.

V/r
NGA FOIA/PA Requester Service Center