US government will declassify Yahoo documents and court decision by September

DNP US government will declassify Yahoo FISA documents by September

Earlier this month, the US government was put in the hot seat with regards to the Justice Department’s 2008 battle with Yahoo over its request for user data. Yahoo fought the PRISM demand and ultimately lost; five years later, we’re finally going to be able to see the court decision that’s been kept under lock and key since then. The clock is ticking for the federal government, as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has set a September deadline for unveiling those classified documents. While this might be a victory for transparency, it’s important to remember that declassification doesn’t necessarily mean full disclosure. The government will still have the option to redact certain portions of text that it feels must remain classified. Considering its reticence to share the information in the first place, we can probably expect to see a liberal distribution of those pesky black rectangles.

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Via: GigaOM

Data.gov redesign preview modernizes public data delivery

DNP Datagov opens up new levels of transparency, data access

While we know the government’s spying on our personal data, what’s it doing with all of the public info it gathers? President Obama’s answer to that question was creating Data.gov, a portal that publishes, among other things, public school funding amounts. Four years on, though, and the site looks and navigates like a product of its time. The modern redesign that launched today as a preview is part of this May’s Open Data Executive Order that hopes to graft non-proprietary and machine-readable data formats “into the Federal Government’s DNA.” The homepage combines published research from a range of headings — education, energy, finance, global development, health, research and safety — and the tweets of public servants about said data, into one river of news. It’s cool to see the government taking charge and making all this easier to access, but we’re wondering how much it’ll cost us next April.

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Via: The Verge

Source: Whitehouse, Data.gov