Transparency in behavior is a way of acting that makes it easy for others to see what actions are performed. As an ethic that spans science, engineering, business, and the humanities, transparency implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is practiced in companies, organizations, administrations, and communities. For example, in a business relation, fees are clarified at the outset by a transparent agent, so there are no surprises later. This is opposed to keeping this information hidden which is "non-transparent". A practical example of transparency is also when a cashier makes changes after a point of sale; they offer a transaction record of the items purchased (e.g., a receipt) as well as counting out the customer's change. In information security, transparency means keeping the arcane, underlying mechanisms hidden so as not to obstruct intended function—an almost opposite sense. It principally refers to security mechanisms that are intentionally undetectable or hidden from view. Examples include hiding utilities and tools which the user does not need to know in order to do their job, like keeping the remote re-authentication operations of Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol hidden from the user.
Wages In Norway and in Sweden, tax authorities annually release the "skatteliste", "taxeringskalendern", or "tax list"; official records showing the annual income and overall wealth of nearly every taxpayer. Regulations in Hong Kong require banks to list their top earners – without naming them – by pay band. In 2009, the Spanish government for the first time released information on the net worth of each cabinet member, but data on ordinary citizens is private. Currently, elected officials have to disclose their net worth on a yearly basis. An unwritten norm requires that American politicians release their tax returns, in particular those running for the office of president. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump refused to release them, breaking a 47-year-old custom, but still got elected.
Management
Radical transparency is a management method where nearly all decision-making is carried out publicly. All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, all final decisions, and the decision-making process itself are made public and remain publicly archived. This approach has grown in popularity with the rise of the Internet. Two examples of organizations utilizing this style are the Linux community and Indymedia. Corporate transparency, a form of radical transparency, is the concept of removing all barriers to—and the facilitating of—free and easy public access to corporate information and the laws, rules, social connivance and processes that facilitate and protect those individuals and corporations that freely join, develop, and improve the process. In 2025 the Austrian Court of Audit argued that mistakes had been made in granting neither Austria's ministry of energy nor regulatory E-Control full access to gas contracts agreed upon between OMV and Russian Gazprom in 2006.
Non-governmental organizations Accountability and transparency are of high relevance for non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In view of their responsibilities to stakeholders, including donors, sponsors, programme beneficiaries, staff, states and the public, they are considered to be of even greater importance to them than to commercial undertakings. Yet these same values are often found to be lacking in NGOs. The International NGO Accountability Charter, linked to the Global Reporting Initiative, documents the commitment of its members international NGOs to accountability and transparency, requiring them to submit an annual report, among others. Signed in 2006 by 11 NGOs active in the area of humanitarian rights, the INGO Accountability Charter has been referred to as the "first global accountability charter for the non-profit sector". In 1997, the One World Trust created an NGO Charter, a code of conduct comprising commitment to accountability and transparency.
Media
Media transparency is the concept of determining how and why information is conveyed through various means. If the media and the public know everything that happens in all authorities and county administrations there will be a lot of questions, protests and suggestions coming from the media and the public. People who are interested in a certain issue will try to influence the decisions. Transparency creates everyday participation in the political processes by the media and the public. One tool used to increase everyday participation in political processes is freedom of information legislation and requests. Modern democracy builds on such participation of the people and media. There are, for anybody who is interested, many ways to influence the decisions at all levels in society.
Politics
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