ODNI Secrecy Activity, “Population” Increased in 2010
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported a notable increase in its classification activity last year, along with an even greater increase in the ODNI “population.”
The number of ODNI “derivative classification decisions” — referring to the classification of new records under previously issued guidance — increased 7.6% to 1,762,999 from the year before, wrote ODNI Information Management Director John F. Hackett in a November 12 report (pdf). “The increase in total decisions was largely driven by population growth, which increased by 17% from last year.”
A copy of the ODNI report to the Information Security Oversight Office was obtained by Secrecy News under the Freedom of Information Act. See Standard Form 311, Agency Security Classification Management Program Data for Fiscal Year 2010, November 12, 2010.
Among other interesting details, the ODNI report states that “There were two discretionary declassification decisions made by the Acting DNI during FY10 (declassification of ‘QUILL’ as a Radar Imager and declassification of the fact of GAMBIT/HEXAGON overhead ISR missions).”
Often negotiations between data center developers and local officials are conducted behind closed doors, protected by NDAs. How can we have an informed debate, when we don’t know what’s on the table?
As federal data policy nerds, the question we get asked all the time is “How much data has the current administration terminated?”
Google’s motto famously used to be “don’t be evil.” However, its latest feature has just made being evil a whole lot easier.
The public will judge the next era of American science by the innovation that touches their lives through the new cures, products, and opportunities created within their communities.