[Peace-discuss] UIUC/state employees, beware of how you use your work e-mail

[Stuart Levy]

FYI to University and other State employees - be 'ware of how you use
your work e-mail.

Yesterday I received a Freedom-of-Information-Act request, which an
"opposition research" company had sent to the University FOIA office.  
It asked whether Stuart Levy had sent any e-mails related to Ilhan Omar
between Feb 1st and mid-July.

With my UIUC e-mail, I hadn't sent any, and likewise for the (very few)
work-related e-mails I'd sent using my personal gmail -- so the answer
was No.

I've asked my coworkers - none of them has received such a FOIA
request.   If you hear from anyone else who got a similar req, please
let us all know.    It'd be interesting if we can guess how they're
singling out particular people.

The people making the request were from America Rising, which Wikipedia
describes as an opposition research group against Dems.   They've also
dug for dirt on USEPA employees who don't toe the Trump line.  
Presumably here they are looking for academics supporting the best
members of Congress - maybe for the purposes of discrediting
academia.    In short I assume they're trying to intimidate us into
shutting ourselves up.

(The guy who wrote to the UIUC FOIA office was one Allan Blutstein,
their "Senior VP for FOIA operations" -- they make an industry of these
requests.)

    Stuart




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