The first part of the article describes the process of forming the category of “transparency” and also highlights two basic requirements that constitute it. The first one is the maximum of information openness as a reflection on the democratization of modern society. The second one is to maintain secrecy, corporate secrets or privacy (personal secrecy). In Russian literature, the discussion embodying these two diametrically opposite attitudes is almost not presented practically. In the second part of the publication, the authors (on the example of three government websites) analyze the level of openness of information in the Russian Federation.