During Loretta Lynch's confirmation hearing for one of the most critical positions in the federal government – attorney general – we saw a priority placed on improving the transparency of the Office of Legal Counsel.
Continue readingThe flip side of anonymity: legally-identified microdata
Exploring the varied terrain of legally-identified data helps show how different datasets, even closely related datasets, may have very different levels of protection.
Continue readingAnonymization and microdata: Can we open up granular info without invading privacy?
We’re taking a closer look at a number of important questions associated with use of microdata — the individual-level data we understand to offer both enormous potential benefit and potential risk.
Continue readingExploring open data’s microdata frontier
What is "microdata" and why is it so powerful? We're exploring the challenges and opportunities of the current legal, technical and social landscape of 21st Century microdata.
Continue readingEncrypting our Congress API and protecting your location
If you're using our Congress API — **especially** if you use our endpoints that look up Congressional representation based upon zip code or latitude/longitude — we **strongly recommend** you use HTTPS. It's for your own protection, after all.
Continue readingReasons (Not) to Release Data
Earlier this year, Sunlight was issued a challenge: Collect and refute the most common reasons not to release data. As many open access advocates, journalists, and government employees themselves will tell you, there are a variety of "no's" given when the question of data disclosure arises. Many are predictable, some are political, some personal, many practical, and all deserving of attention. Pioneers looking to move their government toward exploring and advancing information release have already come up with rebuttals to many of these refusals, but the collective knowledge is hard to share, usually trapped in email groups, discussion boards, blogs, and the memories and experiences of individuals. So, we're going to meet our challenge with an experiment.
Continue readingSOPA revolvers: Sixteen former Judiciary staffers lobby on online copyright issues
As the House Judiciary Committee readies to consider a controversial bill that supporters say will crack down on websites pirating content, some interest groups may have a leg up on influencing the legislators.
That’s because 16 lobbyists, representing various companies and organizations favoring, opposing or watching the bill, used to work on the House panel. The committee plans to markup the measure tomorrow.
The bill, called the Stop Online Piracy Act, is hotly contested, dividing Hollywood, which wants tougher laws to protect copyrighted material, and Silicon Valley, which contends that SOPA would introduce new, uncertain liabilities for web companies ...
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