United States · Federal FOIA

FOIA and Privacy Act requests for federal agencies, in one platform

AccessPoint manages Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act of 1974 requests — the 20-business-day determination, the nine exemptions, and first-party access and amendment — pre-configured for U.S. federal agencies and running inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

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United States — Federal at a glance

Response deadline
20 business days to make a determination (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A))
Extensions
Additional 10 business days for unusual circumstances (§ 552(a)(6)(B))
Filing fee
None; search, review, and duplication fees vary by requester category
Exemptions
Nine, under 5 U.S.C. § 552(b), applied with the foreseeable-harm test
Oversight
OGIS at the National Archives (FOIA Ombudsman, mediation); courts review de novo
Languages
English

Built for United States — Federal

One platform for the whole access-and-privacy mandate, pre-configured for this regime and running in your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

FOIA request lifecycle

Intake to release on the federal clock — the 20-business-day determination under 5 U.S.C. § 552, the unusual-circumstances extension, the nine (b) exemptions, and fee-category tracking — all built on Microsoft 365.

Privacy Act first-party access

Run Privacy Act of 1974 requests for a person's own records in a system of records, including the right to seek amendment or correction, on the same platform as your FOIA caseload.

Exemptions and redaction

Apply the nine FOIA exemptions and the foreseeable-harm test line by line, with a colour-coded catalogue and a defensible, audit-trailed redaction record.

OGIS mediation and appeals

Track administrative appeals on the statutory 90-day window and referrals to the Office of Government Information Services — the FOIA Ombudsman at the National Archives — with its dispute-resolution steps mapped out.

Fees by requester category

Compute search, review, and duplication fees by requester category — commercial, news media and educational, or all others — with the statutory free search and copying allowances applied.

In your own tenant

Every request, record, and audit trail stays inside your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant — no third-party cloud, no cross-border transfers, and no per-user fees.

FOIA and the Privacy Act

Access and personal-records requests are two laws. AccessPoint runs both.

Federal agencies answer to two statutes at once — the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552) for public records and the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. § 552a) for an individual's own records — and requesters often invoke both in a single letter. AccessPoint runs FOIA and Privacy Act requests on one platform, in your own tenant, so the 20-business-day determination, the nine exemptions, and first-party access and amendment live in the same system instead of two.

FOIA access Public-record requests on the 20-business-day clock with the nine (b) exemptions.
Privacy Act access First-party access to and amendment of records in a system of records.
One audit trail Every determination and redaction captured on a hash-chained ledger.

Configured out of the box

Installing the us-foia configuration pack seeds your tenant with everything this regime needs — a starting point you can adjust, not a lock-in.

Related guide: FOI Workflow Quick Check
  • FOIA and the Privacy Act of 1974 as the legal-authority and citation spine
  • The federal statutory-holiday calendar and 20-business-day due-date rules
  • The nine FOIA exemptions, colour-coded for redaction, with the foreseeable-harm test
  • Unusual-circumstances extension reasons with citations and limits
  • Requester fee categories — commercial, news media and educational, and all others
  • OGIS dispute-resolution steps and administrative-appeal grounds and dispositions
  • Federal timeliness brackets and Annual FOIA Report data points
  • FOIA and Privacy Act correspondence templates with statutory wording

United States — Federal Questions

Does AccessPoint handle both FOIA and Privacy Act requests?
Yes. The federal configuration ships both regimes in one pack — Freedom of Information Act access requests and Privacy Act of 1974 requests for a person's own records — with the shared 20-business-day clock, the nine exemptions, and Privacy Act first-party access and amendment reflected in the workflows.

How does it track the 20-business-day deadline and extensions?
AccessPoint computes business-day due dates from the federal holiday calendar and starts the clock at intake. It also tracks the additional 10-business-day extension for unusual circumstances under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B) — records from field offices, voluminous records, or consultation with another agency — with the notice to the requester on file.

Does it support OGIS mediation and administrative appeals?
Yes. AccessPoint tracks the minimum 90-day administrative-appeal window and referrals to the Office of Government Information Services, the FOIA Ombudsman at the National Archives. OGIS offers voluntary mediation and is not order-making — final enforcement is by de novo review in the U.S. district courts, and AccessPoint keeps the record either path needs.

Where does agency data reside?
Entirely within your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant. Requests, documents, and audit history never leave your control — no third-party cloud, no vendor access, and no cross-border data transfers.

Run FOIA and Privacy Act Requests in One Platform

Try AccessPoint free for 30 days, pre-configured for U.S. federal agencies. No credit card required.

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