01/07/2008 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• • • Requests for Government Data - 4 The data subject has the right to see all public and private data about her/himself. The City must let the subject view the data immediately, if possible, or within ten working days of receiving the request. Inspection times and locations may be reasonably limited. The City may not charge a fee for letting the subject see data about her/himself. Even if the City is required to produce a copy in order to permit the subject to view the data, it cannot assess a fee for doing so. If the subject has requested data that are not accessible to him/her, the City must inform the individual of this fact, and must cite the specific section of state or federal law that gives the City the authority to withhold the data from the subject. What if the private data on the requestor also contains private data on other individuals? The data subject is entitled to see all public and private data which the City maintains about him or her, but is not entitled to gain access to private or confidential data about other people which may appear in the records or files. The City cannot refuse to give a data subject access to private or public data about her/himself just because not public data about other people are maintained in the record or file. When an individual data subject requests data that include not public data about other individuals, the proper action for the City is to remove from the requested data all private and confidential data about other individuals. How often can someone request to view private data about her /himself? After the subject has reviewed data about her/himself, the City is not required to show the data to the subject for six months unless: • The City collects or creates more data about the subject before six months have passed. If more data have been collected before the passage of six months, the subject has the right to inspect the data s/he originally viewed, as well as the newly - collected or created data; or • The data subject has challenged the accuracy and/or completeness of the data, or is appealing the results of such a challenge. Does the City have to explain the private data? The subject has the right to be informed of the content and meaning of public and private data about her/himself upon request. Upon the request of the data subject, the City must explain the content and meaning of the data. This includes explaining the meaning of technical terminology, abbreviations, or words or phrases. The explanation must be provided in a way the subject understands, including the use of another language, an interpreter, or other means. The City must clearly inform the subject how to exercise this right.