mySociety

Alaveteli was designed with privacy in mind but predates GDPR. Complying with GDPR is currently slow and burdensome, diverting resources from core functions. We plan to redesign data storage and admin interfaces for better redaction and deletion of personal data. Additionally, we aim to replace outdated search functions with PostgreSQL vector searching to enhance data management and simplify deployment. Funding will cover developer time to ensure global data protection.

WhatDoTheyKnow receives over 17 million user sessions and processes over half a million email messages per year. mySociety also hosts several growing Alaveteli installs and provides support to partners self-hosting their own install.

Alaveteli receives around 200 automated dependency upgrade pull requests each year, from small library updates to major framework releases. We also periodically release stable versions of Alaveteli for the international community, and make bug fixes and improvements to improve the user experience of the software for users and administrators.

Alaveteli supports a vibrant community of users, from seasoned journalists to individual citizens making their first Access to Information requests. Providing helpful and friendly user support helps create positive experiences with democratic processes, and governance processes help ensure problems are addressed and dealt with.

Access to Information laws, while powerful, are often under threat or under used due to poor authority performance or poor citizen awareness. In addition to building software, mySociety and its partners facilitate international networks, communities of practice and campaigns for improved legislation and authority effectiveness to create more robust Access to Information environments around the world.

Any donations are welcome to support a small charity making a big difference. mySociety is the charity that runs FixMyStreet, TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem, and WhatDoTheyKnow. We are pioneering the use of online technologies to put more power in more people’s hands so that together we can build a fairer, safer future. We enable people across the UK to become changemakers by providing technology and data openly and for free.