What do they know?

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, public bodies in the UK are obliged to respond to requests for recorded information.

Is this something we all routinely access? No: perhaps because people don’t commonly know that they have this right. Even if they do, it’s not always simple to work out how to make a request.

mySociety launched WhatDoTheyKnow to tackle that issue, and bring the power of the Freedom of Information Act to everybody.

While the site WhatDoTheyKnow.com has been created specifically for the UK, the same project is available on the site alaveteli.org for use everywhere in the world.