Who we are
GovLens is an independent, non-partisan transparency platform built by Trelvio. We have no political affiliations, accept no advertising from political entities, and are 100% transparent about how we operate and fund ourselves.
Why GovLens exists
GovLens exists to make the work of the European Parliament more accessible. We believe transparency strengthens representative democracy rather than undermining it. When citizens can see how laws are made and how their representatives vote, they can make more informed electoral choices.
However, transparency tools carry responsibility. The information we present can be misused, taken out of context, or weaponized for political purposes. We take this responsibility seriously.
How we operate
Our user base is self-selecting, not representative. People who use GovLens tend to be more politically engaged, younger, more educated, and more likely to be from Western EU member states than the EU population as a whole.
GovLens sentiment data should never be presented as representing "public opinion" or "what citizens want." It represents the views of GovLens users only. We are transparent about this limitation in all our data exports, API responses, and on-platform displays.
A headline number without demographics is irresponsible. When we display a gap between citizen sentiment and MEP voting, we always present it with context: sample size, geographic distribution, verification tier, and the inherent limitations of self-selected data.
Team
Non-partisan summaries, fact-checking, and responsible framing of legislative data.
Open-source infrastructure, privacy-by-design architecture, and data pipeline integrity.
Anomaly detection, sentiment analysis, and statistical modelling with full methodology disclosure.
Ownership & Funding
GovLens is built and operated by Trelvio Technology OU, a bootstrapped, EU-sovereign company. We are a for-profit company that sustains itself through Pro subscriptions and API access — not grants, donations, or advertising. We do not accept advertising from political entities, do not partner with political campaigns or advocacy organisations, and publicly disclose our finances.
If any GovLens content is perceived as partisan, we consider that a bug and will correct it.
When we would shut down
We have identified scenarios where the responsible action would be to suspend or shut down GovLens, partially or entirely:
- Systematic manipulation — If our data is being systematically manipulated at scale and we cannot adequately detect or prevent it, we will suspend the affected features.
- Weaponisation — If GovLens data is being used for harassment or intimidation of elected representatives, and our safeguards prove insufficient, we will restrict access.
- Democratic harm — If credible evidence emerges that GovLens is undermining democratic processes, we will seek independent review and act on recommendations.
- Privacy breach — If citizen identity data is compromised, we will immediately suspend the platform, notify affected users, and engage data protection authorities.
These criteria are reviewed annually by our advisory board. The decision to invoke any of them requires documented evidence and is not taken lightly.
Read our methodology to understand how we collect and aggregate data. Questions? responsibility@govlens.eu