*Data that matters against opacity isn’t just a catchy slogan, it’s a declaration of intent and a definition of who we are. In our continual monitoring of the powers that be, data and facts are the true stars of the show - and we want to share these with you.

Since Civio’s beginnings back in 2012, they have formed the backbone of our investigations: Pardonometer, Spain in flames, Who’s paid for the work?, and even the stories featured in Our Daily Official Gazette. We release, collate and treat previously inaccessible data on a daily basis. And now we’re sharing them in a centralized way via this repository.

Yes, like many media outlets we use open data portals or institutional websites with ready-to-use files. But things aren’t always so rosy. Sometimes we spend days on end collating and cross referencing data gathered from hundreds of websites in PDF format, we wait weeks to get our hands on information via requests for information—or months if we have to lodge claims—and when we want to go that bit further, our team scrapes websites, combining several sources and cleaning the data as if there were no tomorrow.

And despite the time, effort and knowledge invested in this work, our datasets and the stories they give rise to are all Creative Commons, freely available for your use. In other words, we don’t ask you to pay anything to use them. All we ask is that if you do use them, you cite and link to Civio as the source, in recognition of the work our developers and journalists have done in order to provide you with access. Until now, these data were to be found in our articles’ methodology. Now we’ve made things easier by centralizing everything here.

If you would like to support us so that we can continue to release the data that fight opacity, why not become a Civio member, make an ad-hoc donation or help us to open up new sets of information? Or spread the word so that lots more people can access our data. We’re counting on you!