Top all-time · #5914
Civic Hax
Personal blog · mchap.io · on HN as bpchapspoliticsprogrammingdata
Civic Hax is a personal blog at mchap.io about politics, programming and data. Since 2018, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 32 times, most often “The City of Seattle Accidentally Gave Me 32M Emails for $40”. The last post was in 2019, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Civic Hax's posts on FOIA and public-records fights with governments, such as Seattle's email release, Chicago requests, and parking ticket data. Comments point to them as investigative journalism.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The City of Seattle Accidentally Gave Me 32M Emails for $404 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2018-10-19
- Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets (2018)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-10-11
- Losing a 5-year-long Illinois FOIA lawsuit for database schemas2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-03-03
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-02-26
- Chicago Parking Ticket Visualization2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-03-27
- A Tale About Requesting Chicago's Mayor's Office's Phone Records2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-08-29
What Hacker News says?
It's Matt Champan! https://mchap.io/ I helped him process and visualize the original batch of parking ticket data waaaay back in 2016. I can't believe he's still on this in 2025. We need more junkyard dogs like him fighting for what's right.
Comment linking /
on “I Went to SQL Injection Court”Submitted Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets as a story · 769 points
HN discussionThe HN post [0] is from February 9th, 2025, but the post the person you replied to was referencing [1] is from October 19th, 2018. [0] https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2025/02/09/fixing-illinois-foia/ [1] https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-...
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “I Went to SQL Injection Court”Submitted The City of Seattle Accidentally Gave Me 32M Emails for $40 as a story · 516 points
HN discussionHi everyone, I'm the plaintiff in this lawsuit. I'm still working on my companion post for tptacek's post! I'll have it ready Soon TM, but feel free to me any questions in the meantime here. While you're waiting, check out this older post: https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-...
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “I Went to SQL Injection Court”Submitted Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets (2018) as a story · 194 points
HN discussionHe mentions that he had previously requested this info in Chicago. This is the relevant previous blog post: https://mchap.io/a-tale-about-requesting-chicagos-mayors-off...
Comment linking /a-tale-about-requesting-chicagos-mayors-offices-phone-records.html
on “The City of Seattle Accidentally Gave Me 32M Emails for $40”Submitted Losing a 5-year-long Illinois FOIA lawsuit for database schemas as a story · 138 points
HN discussionI'm not familiar with CA's public records laws to say for sure, but I'm familiar with other public records laws, and have submitted ~1k requests throughout the US. Technically, yes, you can request records from FOIA and sell them. Though, many public records laws are very specific about whether you are requesting as a for-profit org, and can deny your request on that basis. If that isn't the issue, then your request…
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “The California DMV Is Selling Drivers’ Personal Information”Submitted The City of Seattle Accidentally Gave Me 32M Emails for 40 Dollars (2018) as a story · 38 points
HN discussionThis is an absolute par-for-the-course FOIA case anywhere in the world. There's a saying "You can't beat city hall!" If you sue a public body then it'll be a public prosecutor defending the case. They probably eat lunch with another public employee every day: the judge on your case. Who are you, a dirty prole, to attack the government? In your first line, in trial courts where you create your record, you face the si…
Comment linking /
on “Treachery in the Rodin Museum 3D scan verdict”Submitted Chicago Parking Ticket Visualization as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe City of Chicago's lawyers went the opposite direction in response to @tpacek's affidavit that the release of table/column names would have "marginal value" to an attacker. The city latched onto that to get a trial that eventually went to the IL Supreme Court and lost. [I]n my affidavit, I wrote that SQL schemas would provide “only marginal value” to an attacker. Big mistake. Chicago jumped on those words and sai…
Comment linking /losing-a-5yr-long-illinois-foia-lawsuit-for-database-schemas.html
on “Possibly a Serious Possibility”Submitted A tale about requesting Chicago’s Mayor’s Office’s phone records as a story · 4 points
HN discussionEvery now and then, yep :) https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-...
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “Friends don't let friends export to CSV”Submitted The City of Seattle Accidentally Gave Me 32M Emails for 40 Dollars (2018) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI know chaps. He absolutely has cases where people were reincarcerated through faulty GPS pings, he's just trying to avoid listing a bunch of defendants. He does a ton of really great journalism, a lot of FOIA work, to try and keep governments honest. Here's one of his struggles: https://mchap.io/losing-a-5yr-long-illinois-foia-lawsuit-for...
Comment linking /losing-a-5yr-long-illinois-foia-lawsuit-for-database-schemas.html
on “GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet”Submitted Chicago Parking Ticket Visualization as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHere's something about shotspotter data in Chicago: https://x.com/foiachap/status/1775296597850480663 And this one makes some rounds: https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-... Feel free to reach out!
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “MTA Open Data Challenge”Submitted Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets as a story · 1 points
HN discussionBeen there with a 33M cost estimate [1]. If the requester is reading this -- hold them to it and request a much smaller but still significant amount of records. Use that as the foundation for "how much time it actually takes". Another option is to get clever with helping them with means and modes of review/redaction. This is how I got the email metadata for 6M emails from Houston for example. Another example from Ve…
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “Texas city demands $2M for public records on Flock usage”Submitted A Tale About Requesting Chicago's Mayor's Office's Phone Records as a story · 1 points
HN discussion(disclaimer: my experience with FOIA is mostly at the state level and though I've read, used, and litigated federal FOIA issues, I'm no expert there) Transparency doesn't work in isolation. If there's a problem where the release of 450,000 pages of patient information is so difficult that it can't be done, then there's a fundamental process fuckup that should be corrected. For example, if everything's on paper, then…
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “Judge orders FDA to hasten FOIA release of Pfizer vaccine docs”I'm not sure what your comment is digging at. Are you asking me to give you examples where the wrong data was leaked through FOIA? Because if so, -- https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-... It's not even an uncommon issue. I'm currently dealing with a large local police department who released to me thousands of peoples' SSNs, finger print hash, tattoos, etc etc from ALPR data in a FOIA lawsui…
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on ““Dark money” groups help private ISPs lobby against municipal broadband”1. Yes, you can. See: https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-... (I'm the author) 2. You're joking, right?
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on ““Dark money” groups help private ISPs lobby against municipal broadband”The assumption that parking tickets are usually avoidable and legitimate is understandable, but surprisingly far from true. The assumption that the legal system is overloaded as a single entity that's stressed by all new cases is also untrue. One of the most ticketed spots in Chicago was a mind-bending mess of conflicting signage: it was a cab stand except when it was metered parking with a digital meter nowhere nea…
Comment linking /using-foia-data-and-unix-to-halve-major-source-of-parking-tickets.html
on “Robot lawyer DoNotPay now lets you ‘sue anyone’ via an app”Sure -- here are some things I've done with public records: https://southsideweekly.com/cpd-routinely-denies-foia-reques... https://mchap.io/using-foia-data-and-unix-to-halve-major-sou... https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-... https://www.chicagoreporter.com/chicago-police-arrested-more... https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/news/shotspotters-de... https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics…
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “Bureaucratic processes typically involve a person new to the process”My position is that no amount of policy will ever make these tools safe, fullstop. I've been an investigative journalist doing research into the use of technology by police and prosecutors and the shit I've personally seen is beyond shameful. The modes of failure for these systems are such that it's inevitable that they'll be abused and even when abuses don't happen, accidents do. And also FWIW, I've been a sysadmin…
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire”"What does it mean to clean the data?" This isn't possible to answer generally, but I'm sure you know that. Look -- I've been in nonstop litigation for data through FOIA for the past ten years. During litigation I can definitely push back on messy data and I have, but if I were to do that on every little "obviously wrong" point, then my litigation will get thrown out for me being a twat of a litigant. Again, I'd rat…
Comment linking /using-foia-data-and-unix-to-halve-major-source-of-parking-tickets.html
on “Stop Publishing Garbage Data, It's Embarrassing”This might quench your thirst in the meantime! https://mchap.io/that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-...
Comment linking /that-time-the-city-of-seattle-accidentally-gave-me-32m-emails-for-40-dollars4997.html
on “Marcel the Shell”
