Fake transparency

There are two kinds of transparency:

1. Where the information is technically available but is inconvenient to acquire
2. Where the information is easily accessible. 

There is a huge difference between these two, but people often think both of them are transparent.

Convenience can make a huge difference. People put junk food on the top shelf because even this small change can make us eat healthier. Studies have also shown that people are convenience maximizers and want to put in as little effort as possible. If something is a step harder there is generally a huge drop off rate. For example charities know that if they want certain pages to get traffic it's good to link them directly from the home page because most people will not be bothered enough to go to a different page to find it.

If I wanted to make information technically possible to access but I did not really want people to see it, it would be easy to set up a bunch of steps that seem reasonable but will reduce the number of people who end up seeing the information dramatically. Some examples below.

• Instead of linking the information directly I could say “email me for this information”
  
• I put the information on a page that is harder to access; say one that takes 2 or more clicks from any commonly visited webpage.
  
• I put the information mixed in with a large amount of other information. For example, I write a 20 page blog post and within it there is buried the information I do not want others to find. 
  
• I write summaries of the information that highlight certain areas, and although I do provide the original information it is just as one link at the bottom of the summary.
  
• I do not mention the information anywhere publicly but if someone specifically asks for it of course I will send it to them.
  
• I keep the information as an “internal doc” and refuse to separate it from the confidential information that is also in the document. I use this as an excuse not to share the document.
  
• I put the information out publicly but in a not very readable or understandable form, such as rough notes or raw spreadsheets.
  
  

If I were to do any these things the number of people who would follow through would be dramatically reduced. I do not think all charities do this deliberately, although I know for a fact that some do, but any of these kinds of steps reduced an organizations transparency. It's very important to realize the difference between possible and practical transparency.