In November of 2017, The Stranger filed a petition with the federal court in Seattle to bring more transparency to local authorities' attempts to surveil you. Specifically, the concern was new technology known as pen registers and trap and trace devices, and the secrecy and ease with which the government uses them to collect personal data. Well, we just heard from the US Attorney's Office, and they have agreed to what we were demanding. The court orders surrounding the new technology were formerly top secret, but now authorities are going to track each time they take our data and release that information in semiannual reports. Our former news editor Steven Hsieh initiated the lawsuit, and we were represented by the amazing lawyers at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation; we couldn't have done it without them (literally—they did all of the work). Nor could we have done it without our new Slog bong. Now any old schmuck off the street (even Joel "Quotation That Makes No Sense in Every Headline" Connelly) can find out how often the government is spying on us. Go team!