And this is where the rules/regulations become important for how many degrees of separation -- how many "hops"; see also the 'Kevin Bacon rule' -- they are perm

And this is where the rules/regulations become important for how many degrees of separation -- how many "hops"; see also the 'Kevin Bacon rule' -- they are permitted to pursue based upon the original source data. If you believe that they actually adhere to them. As someone else described (I don't know), this particular collection started with "a hunch"... If we don't know what our government and its agencies are actually doing -- to a reasonable degree, as it were -- we cannot exercise oversight and we cease to be a democracy (in the form of a republic, or otherwise).