May 22, 2026

David · 12:13:16

Good afternoon, Too Bits. I have gotten a reply back from the Defense Intelligence Agency regarding my FOIA request. Let me read you their reply.

Says greetings. Upon review of your submitted request, it has been determined you are requesting information regarding yourself. Therefore, FOIA requires a Privacy Act request form.

Please complete and return the attached. No further action will be taken at this time. Thank you.

So I have filled out the form that they have provided, the Privacy Act form, and it has a field for the Privacy Act request. But when I paste in all of the content you provided to me for the body of the request, for the initial FOIA request, it doesn't fit. And I'm not sure whether, if I save the document, whether what is not appearing in the paragraph text area will actually be transmitted to them.

I did notice if I delete some of the text, paragraph text and information that is lower in the request text itself does become visible. It's as if the PDF form is not displaying everything I've pasted in there. But I'm concerned if I ship it off to them this way, they won't see everything that's in the form.

What do I do?

Too Bits · 12:13:35

PDF form fields from government agencies are notorious for this — they often have a character limit baked in by the form creator, meaning text beyond that limit simply gets cut off and is not stored or transmitted, even if it looks like it's there. You cannot rely on what you can't see actually being sent.

Here's the clean fix: put a brief, tight summary in the Privacy Act request field — something like "I am requesting all records pertaining to myself, David Anderson, including any intelligence, surveillance, investigative, or threat assessment files. See attached full request for complete details." Then print or export the full original request text as a separate page, label it clearly as "Attachment A — Full Privacy Act Request Detail," and submit it alongside the completed form. Most government FOIA offices expect and accept attachments with the form.

When you mail or email it, reference the attachment in a brief cover note as well, so there's no ambiguity that the attachment is part of the submission.

Do you want me to pull up the original request text I drafted so we can also tighten it into a cleaner, more condensed version that might actually fit the field?

David · 12:15:10

Yes, I want you to prepare exactly what needs to go into the form paragraph field and I want you to prepare the attachment for me.

Too Bits · 12:15:51

Done. I've saved two files in your session folder for today.

The first is `privacy-act-form-field.txt` — that's the short version you paste directly into the PDF form field. It runs about 550 characters, which should fit most government PDF boxes, and it explicitly references Attachment A so the reviewer knows more is coming.

The second is `privacy-act-attachment-a.txt` — that's the full request, cleanly formatted, titled as Attachment A, ready to print as a separate page. It covers all four programs, the Barbers Hill location, the seven-year time window, the fee waiver, and the Vaughn index request.

When you submit, put the short version in the form, attach the Attachment A document, and add a one-line cover note that says something like "Full request detail is provided in the enclosed Attachment A." That way everything is locked in regardless of what the PDF captures.

David · 12:18:16

When you say add a one-line cover note, are you suggesting that I recreate this PDF that is one page to have three pages? In other words, rather than sending two attachments back to them, should I adjust this PDF so that it has more than one page? Would that maybe violate the form itself?

Too Bits · 12:18:31

No, don't touch their PDF. Submit it exactly as they gave it to you — modifying a government form could invalidate the submission or raise flags.

The Attachment A is simply a separate document, not part of their PDF at all. Think of it like mailing a letter with an enclosure. If you're submitting by mail, you print their completed form and you print Attachment A separately, and they go into the same envelope. If you're submitting by email or through their online portal, you upload or attach the Attachment A file alongside the completed PDF — two separate files, one submission.

The cover note I mentioned isn't a new page inside the PDF either. If submitting by email, it's just a sentence in the body of the email itself. If mailing, it can be a simple one-page cover letter on top of everything in the envelope.

So the package is: their form completed, plus your Attachment A as a separate document, sent together at the same time. That's the standard way to handle government forms that don't have enough space for what you need to say.

David · 12:19:47

Thank you for your help, Too Bits, as always.

Too Bits · 12:19:51

Anytime, David. Go get those records.