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12 Section II: MGDPA Summary • surviving spouse or, if there is no surviving spouse, to the decedent's child or children. If there are no children, the decedent's parents may access the data. The MGDPA refers to the personal representative and the survivors of the decedent as the representative of the decedent. • Confidential data on decedents are data, which before the death of the data subject, were classified as confidential data on individuals. Access to the data is the same as access to confidential data on individuals. Access to data on decedents generally is the same as access to data on individuals. Upon the death of the individual data subject, the rights of the data subject transfer to the representative of the decedent. See Sections IV and VI for information about the rights of data subjects. How does one know how data are classified? The MGDPA classifies all government data as public unless a specific state statute or federal law classifies the data as not public. Government entities must determine what types of data they maintain and what data classifications apply to the data. If no statute or federal law can be identified that classifies the data as not public, the data are presumed to be public and available to anyone upon request. The MGDPA itself classifies many types of government data. (See sections 13.30 through 13.90.) The last section of this law, section 13.99, lists other Minnesota Statutes that classify government data as not public, or that place restrictions on access to government data. • How else does the MGDPA regulate data handling practices? In addition to classifying data, the MGDPA establishes important rights for individuals who are the subjects of government data. Many of these rights are established at Minnesota Statutes section 13.04 and are discussed more fully in Sections IV and VI of this manual. The MGDPA does not establish comparable rights for businesses and other organizations which are the subjects of data not on individuals. The MGDPA also imposes significant duties on government entities, many of which are established by Minnesota Statutes section 13.05. These duties, including the requirements relating to public access and the rights of data subjects discussed in this model, are summarized in the document, MINNESOTA GOVERNMENT DATA PRACTICES ACT: COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST at the end of this section. One requirement is that each government entity appoint a responsible authority to ensure compliance with the MGDPA. The duties of the entity are assigned to its responsible authority. In the 2000 Legislative Session, section 13.05 was amended to require all government entities to appoint a data practices compliance official to whom questions or concerns about data practices problems may be addressed. The responsible authority may be the data practices compliance official. The official must be appointed by December 1, 2000. Juty, 2000 Model Policy: Access to Government Data & Rights of Subjects Data