What's the meaning of "in the spirit of"?

In times past, the rule of law was caveat emptor, which is Latin for "let the buyer beware", placing the burden on the buyer to inspect goods before purchase, protecting those who would hide or falsify information about a product.

Relatively recently, this has changed to the need for full disclosure: the legal requirement to tell the "whole truth" about any matter which the other party should know in deciding to buy or contract.

There is the letter of the law and there is the spirit of the law. The letter of the law are the laws themselves; the spirit of the law is the principle behind the law (e.g. do not make false claims about your product).

There is no law that forces a writer to disclose every detail of how a particular situation came to be; there is likewise no full disclosure law governing something not bought (an article in an online magazine, for example.) So, writers will often cite the spirit of full disclosure to mean "full disclosure." It can be interpreted easily as

• In all honesty...
• Truth be told...

In this example, it is somewhat humorously used to disclose that the texter was someone she knew.

In all honesty, the texter in question turned out to be my editor at Salon...

It means in the thought or intention of.

"In the thought or intention of" full disclosure, the texter in question turned out to be my editor at Salon. (Hi, Sarah!) She has not texted me again.

Edit: not quite sure why this has been down voted. Source: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=in+the+spirit+of+definition

It means "in line with."

In line with full disclosure, the texter in question turned out to be my editor at Salon.

We share the same idiom in France, "dans l'esprit de."

In line with (=in the spirit of) full disclosure, I am posting this announcement so I can earn more points in my quest to win a copy.