In Canada, at least, the secretive and undemocratic Stephen Harper era is finally over, and the new Justin Trudeau regime has much to undo.
And while they did not often make heavy conversation, usually offering just a friendly wave or hello, they also seemed not the least bit secretive or mysterious.
The attorney general, George Brandis, may have approved at least one highly secretive "special intelligence operation" under which Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers are granted sweeping immunity from prosecution in the use of force – but he won't tell you.
The customer service isn't great to say the least; shopkeepers are secretive and defensive.
Indeed, with his refusal to disclose his financial history, his unwillingness to permit a small contingent of journalists to accompany him on all his travels and his opaque fundraising, Trump has actually become the least transparent, most secretive nominee in the post-Watergate era.
Though common, even abundant, in African swamps and permanent marshes, the sitatunga is also one of the most secretive and least known of Africa's large fauna.
Having already raced to the bottom of the tax rate tables, with zero per cent in most places, they now compete to be the least regulated and most secretive, too.
They show that Exxon registered at least 67 companies in the secretive tax haven, covering operations in countries from Russia to Venezuela to Azerbaijan.
It also confounds Russian commentators who had argued the hearing was a secretive farce (not least because one of the adjudicators is a former director of MI5).The tribunal accepted that someone in Ms Zatuliveter's position would be of interest to Russia's spymasters and that MI5 was rightly suspicious about her contacts and behaviour.
After Charlotte speaks Korean in "Something Nice Back Home", James Poniewozik from Time became curious about her past because she is "the member of the four freighties whom we know the least about, and the most secretive and sinister-seeming of the bunch".
