The act also includes clauses designed to protect "privacy and national security," so it shouldn't include extremely sensitive data about you or any military secrets. And federal officials have to use this info (when relevant) for decision-making, giving them a vested interest in making the data useful.

A version of the defense bill has already cleared the House of Representatives without mention of the data act, so the next step is to send it to a Conference Committee to sort out differences. If the data portion sticks, it's likely to become law. The biggest challenge isn't so much opening government data to the public as it is getting the full story -- as we've already seen, the current administration isn't fond of data that contradicts its agenda.