united-states foia wiretapping secret freedom-of-information
Can you be added to a watch list for asking?
<p>So the federal government (and possibly state and local governments) of the United States of America keep watch lists, for criminals, terrorists, suspects, and sometimes non-criminals.</p>

<p>I understand you can legally require the government to tell you if you are on a watch list, and information on it, using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. But can any of these governments add you to a watch list, just for asking if you are on a watch list? Is there any history or proof of any of the governments in the United States of America adding people to watch lists for asking if they are on a watch list?</p>

<p>I am wanting to know if I am on a watch list, but I am afraid of retaliation, or additional information being collected on me from the agencies that are the enemies of privacy.</p>

<p>There have been claims of government watch lists, some substantiated and some not, for decades. There is a specific database that does exist, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorist_Screening_Database" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Terrorist Screening Database</a>, which feeds almost a dozen lists including the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List" rel="nofollow noreferrer">No Fly List</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_Security_Screening_Selection" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Secondary Security Selection List</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Gang_and_Terrorist_Organization_File" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File</a>, and so on. This database results from <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PPP-2003-book2/pdf/PPP-2003-book2-doc-pg1174.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Homeland  Security  Presidential  Directive / HSPD–6</a>, which itself doesn't say what it takes to get on the list. There is no master list of lists for all governments, but probably the TSDB is the "list" of most concern. This list is maintained by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorist_Screening_Center" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Terrorist Screening Center</a> of the FBI: <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/national-security-branch/tsc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> is what they say about themselves.</p>

<p>Definitive information on how to get put on the list is not available (the <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/reports/FBI/a0741/final.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2007 Inspector General audit of TSC</a> processing of data suggests there are particular criteria, but they are redacted in the public release of the document), but one can learn at least from the case <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.341477/gov.uscourts.vaed.341477.323.0_1.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Elhady v. Kable</a> that by the FBI's representation of its practices, "An individual may be 'nominated' to the TSDB by a federal government agency or foreign government", and </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Nominated individuals are added to the TSDB if their nomination is
  based "upon articulable intelligence or information which, based on
  the totality of the circumstances and, taken together with rational
  inferences from those facts, creates a reasonable suspicion that the
  individual is engaged, has been engaged, or intends to engage, in
  conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid or in furtherance of,
  or related to, terrorism and/or terrorist activities.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This requires a "reasonable suspicion that the individual is a known or suspected terrorist".</p>

<p>The court finds that</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>TSC may consider, but may not solely base its decision on, an
  individual's race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or "beliefs and
  activities protected by the First Amendment, such as freedom of
  speech, free exercise of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of
  peaceful assembly, and the freedom to petition the government for
  redress of stress of grievances</p>
</blockquote>

<p>as well as</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>an individual's travel history, associates, business associations,
  international associations, financial transactions, and study of
  Arabic as information supporting a nomination to the TSDB</p>
</blockquote>

<p>However,</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>placement into the TSDB does not require any evidence that the person
  engaged in criminal activity, committed a crime, or will commit a
  crime in the future</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Based only on that information, it would not seem likely that simply asking if you are in the database would satisfy the conditions for being added to the database. However, as also noted by the court in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/mohamed-v-holder-12" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mohamed v. Holder</a>, "the Court has little, if any, ability to articulate what information is viewed by the TSC as sufficiently 'derogatory' beyond the labels it has provided the Court" – the courts don't even know what the criteria are. So really, it is unlikely but there's no way to know for certain.</p>
