[7] In September 2014, the OTF worked with Google and Dropbox to create an organization called Simply Secure to help improve the usability of privacy tools.

[8] In March 2017, the OTF's future was reported as under question due to the Trump administration's unclear positions on Internet freedom issues.

[2] The OTF is sustained by annual grants from the USAGM, which originate from yearly U.S. Congressional appropriations for State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

[13] Notable projects whose audits the OTF has sponsored include Cryptocat,[14] Commotion Wireless,[15] TextSecure,[15] GlobaLeaks,[15] MediaWiki,[16] OpenPGP.js,[17] Nitrokey,[18] Ricochet[19] and Signal.

[22] In October 2019, OTF Technology Director Sarah Aoun discussed the findings of OTF-funded research into a Chinese government mobile application, telling ABC News that the app essentially amounts to a "surveillance device in your pocket.

[12] The new board was named, consisting of Jonathan Alexandre (Senior Counsel, Liberty Counsel Action), Robert Bowes (Senior Advisor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), Bethany Kozma (Deputy Chief of Staff, United States Agency for International Development), Rachel Semmel (Communications Director, Office of Management and Budget), Emily Newman (Chief of Staff, USAGM), and Pack as chairman.

[31][32] The lawsuit alleged that the actions violated the "firewall" clause in federal communications regulations that shield government news agencies from political interference.

On July 21, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked the findings in an emergency stay, warning that these actions could endanger the work of activists against Internet censorship in countries with repressive government.

[42] In June 2020, OTF had asked law firm McGuireWoods, which had been advising it pro bono, for help in its conflict with the USAGM and Pack.

[43] The Government Accountability Project, citing records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, claimed McGuireWoods had billed USAGM $1.625 million at an average rate of $320 an hour after receiving a no-bid contract to investigate OTF as well as Voice of America employees.