ICT is increasingly important in how we engage with companies, government and one another. The internet, email, blogs, chatrooms all enable new forms of interaction. We ‘google’ or ‘skype’ someone. Peer-to-peer processes, XBRL or RFID processes are said to signal further new forms of interaction between institutions and individuals, whether as citizens or consumers. At the same time we are uncomfortable, or even highly resistant, to some side-effects of such ICT, fearing that, instead of making our organisations more responsive to us, ICT will make individuals too transparent to companies wanting to sell things or governments wanting to watch us. In this issue of Accountability Forum expert practitioners explore how companies, government and civil society are dealing with the rewards and risks of ICT when it comes to transparency and accountability.

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