Many people are aware of the Freedom of Information Act, known by its acronym, FOIA. It’s the kind of thing that might be described as “government trade secrets, inside out.”
In essence, it means that you can get “private” information from the government by filing a request. Think the government has a file on you? Well, you can file and they will tell you if they do or don’t, or that “they don’t want to confirm or deny” the existence of such a file.