You know, we are still trying to find out the root reasons why folks like Richard de Seve and “GAIA” (and others like them) were allowed to comment and blog at the Concord Monitor so often during normal work hours. So, we continue to think of what we need from the State that would be “non-exempt” that would be available. We just sent this latest RSA 91-A request on the filtering policies that have been put into place by the State of NH:
- what is blocked?
- who requested it (Department) that it be blocked?
Here is the request:
Right to Know Request
as per
RSA 91-A
April 26, 2012
To:
Stanley “Bill” Rogers, Commissioner and CIO, Department of Information Technology, State of New Hampshire
Thomas S. Burack, C, Department of Environmental Services, State of New Hampshire
In light of the final response of April 19th concerning our first Right To Know request (re: political postings by State Employee Richard de Seve during regularly scheduled work hours contra to the policies of both the Department of Environmental Services (“DES”) and the Department of Information Technology (“DoIT”) filed on March 11, 2012), we are making the following RSA 91-A request.
As noted in that final response:
That software categorizes web sites based on historical content. Agencies establish filter policies that determine which categories are accessible or blocked. Based on a user’s login information, the software is able to associate a user with his or her IP address and based on the policy assigned to that user, determines whether the requested page is allowed or blocked. If allowed, the software permits the requested web page to be sent from the requested server to the user for viewing.
Although we were fairly sure that web sensing / filtering software was part of the State’s network, we now have further requests knowing that such filtering software is actually used by the State. We hereby request, in electronic digital form, those electronic Governmental records of existing (and to the extent possible, retired or disabled) filtering policies that:
Item 1:
- Show all of the automatic website / content pairings as determined by the filtering software.
Item 2:
- Show all exceptions to these rules (i.e., this position / role / person is exempted from any filtering policy that otherwise would be applied to their outbound Internet traffic).
Item 3:
- Show all records of agencies requesting that a manually established filter be applied and to include at least the following:
- date of request
- requester
- website to be filtered
- content to be filtered
Further, we also request the file / record layout description of any resulting files (fixed or variable field lengths, data types, encodings, et al). As computer consultants, our expertise will allow us to examine the data once received.
We also request that you name a single point of contact who will be in charge of complying with this RSA 91-A request. If possible, we would request Mr. Peter Demas be that person – we established a very good working communications protocol with Mr. Demas that proved to be beneficial to both parties in our last request.
In contrast to our previous request (as some of it was classified to be “of first impression”), it has now been established that these are existing records. Thus, we are not waiving the normal five (5) business day requirement of RSA 91-A in meeting this request. However, given the possible size of the resulting file, we realize that may not be possible to email (even in a “Zipped” or compressed format); we are willing to utilize a File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”) methodology in order to download the resulting file from a State internet site. If that option is agreeable, we expect the State to provide us with the necessary temporary credentials to accomplish that download. An alternative method of transfer would be for us to supply a USB storage device (i.e., a “thumb drive”) for that file transfer; we would give permission to the State to scan it for malware before its use.
As we are requesting these records strictly from a data networking / data analysis perspective, we believe there should be no objection based on some notion these records are classified as exempt.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation
Signed____________________________________
David “Skip” Murphy (9 Gilford Glen Road, Gilford, NH 03249)
Steve Mac Donald (228 Baboosic Lake Road, Merrimack, NH 03054)
Ed Naile (61 Tubbs Road, Deering, NH 03244)
cc Speaker of the House, the Hon. William O’Brien
cc Majority Leader, NH House of Representatives, D.J. Bettencourt
cc NH State Senator Jim Forsythe (member, NH IT Council)
cc NH State Representative Seth Cohn
cc NH State Representative Mark Warden
cc NH State Representative J.R. Hoell
