From cell phone location tracking to the use of surveillance drones, from secret interpretations of electronic surveillance law to the expanding use of biometrics, EFF has long been at the forefront of the push for greater transparency on the government’s increasingly secretive use of new technologies.

With the launch of our new Transparency Project, we’ve made the information we’ve received easier to access and added new tools to help you learn about the government and file your own requests for information.

The new name—Transparency Project—reflects the fact that EFF’s work has expanded far beyond filing and litigating federal Freedom of Information Act requests. While that work still makes up a solid core of what our Transparency Team does, we also seek information from state and local governments, regularly report on transparency issue more broadly, and provide tools to help you find out more about our government and what it’s up to.

The new Transparency Project section of our website helps to promote these goals. Some of the new features include:

New and improved document search capabilities, including the ability to limit your search to specific topics, issues, agencies, document types, and years, and to see statistics on how many documents fall into each of these categories

Thumbnail images of the first page of each document and snippets of text to let you see your search terms in context

New background information on the history of government transparency and the Freedom of Information Act

New information on each of the government agencies EFF has sent transparency requests to with links to those requests listed by agency

A page that highlights EFF’s transparency victories

A new page that tells you how you can file your own requests with the government

We invite you to check out the new site. If you have ideas for public records or freedom of information requests, email our Transparency Team at foia@eff.org.