NASA keep space information hidden from the public ?

So like title state....what do you think? Do they keep info hidden from us? Do they give us false info? What about thing like NASA's Area 51? Share your thoughts....

My guess is, well, maybe.

There's a huge amount of secrets hidden from the public eye, so it wouldn't surprise me if other forms of life have been discovered already.
I mean, how cool would that be? :o

I think they do, because

No, if anything NASA struggles to get information out. They have rooms full of old records which are deteriorating on obsolete formats that they'd like to keep current, but there is SO MUCH DATA that they have to prioritize what they keep and what they can't. That'd be the only reason that some kind of data wouldn't be available.

Area 51 (Groom Lake, or whatever) is a military base. Many NASA personnel (and in particular astronauts) have been former military, but NASA is a civilian institution. Obviously we don't know everything that goes on with the military because of national security issues, but I don't think there's any reason to suspect NASA is colluding with the military to hide aliens in the desert or anything like that.

Sincerely, I cannot think of a reason to keep information on space research secret, I mean... why would they?
Wouldn't it be so exciting to announce to all people that they have been able to talk to other intelligent lifeforms?
Something that would change the human history forever!
About the AREA 51 I think that it is just a military base, its related myths spread widely thanks to the Internet and so it became famous for hiding aliens and stuff from the whole world..

Are secrets kept within the government and the military? Certainly. Are these secrets large, conspiracy-theory-level cover-ups? Most probably not.

Are secrets kept within NASA? We've no reason to believe that they are. NASA is a distinctly public-facing organization. It was mandated in their founding legislation that they "…provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information…". As Esper mentioned, one of NASA's biggest challenges is getting information out rather than keeping it in.

NASA struggles as it is to win funding and stoke public support (which is just sad, but that's how it is). If they made a ground-breaking discovery, like the discovery of extraterrestrial life, then it would be in their best interest to share it and get people excited about space.

It's the American Government. Of course there's no full transparency.