A good example of transparent work is the Citizens Redistricting Committee, which met with the public (in person and online) around the state in the August-October 2021 period. Through these meetings members of the public were able to voice their concerns about a hugely important issue in representative government and the Committee members clearly heard those voices.

The Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity comes in the wake of numerous supply chain and ransomware attacks to address several key areas for improvement.

Pedroli argued the Sunshine Law forbids deletion, destruction or even the removal of public records without the consent of an office’s custodian of records, and that by using Confide, Greitens and his staff were conspiring to ensure certain records could not be produced pursuant to an open records request.

In Colorado, the Colorado Privacy Act is set for a hearing on May 5 in the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee. Senator Rodriguez, who co-sponsored the bill, is the chair of the Committee. As we previously reported, Colorado’s legislative calendar states that the deadline for bills to pass out of the Senate was April 7. Nonetheless, it appears that lawmakers are treating that deadline as optional and proceeding with a hearing. The Colorado legislature adjourns on June 12.

This editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal focuses on a disturbing practice that allows state governments, higher education, and other organizations to use private portals in order to avoid open-record requests. This reveals that the trend toward using digital dodges to evade open records law extends beyond university settings, which were the focus of a recent Washington Post article outlining the practice among Big Ten Presidents.

“It is unusual to have this many bills all going after public records at the same time,” said Richard Varn, executive director of the Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access. “Texas has a fairly good public records statute and a good history of providing access to public records in general.”

The police union argued that the officers were themselves victims of aggravated assaults by the armed suspects they killed and thus qualified for anonymity under Marsy’s Law. The appellate court agreed in its 13-page ruling.

The phrase, “Government as a Platform,” was originally popularized by Tim O’Reilly in 2011. His idea was to create shared, digital infrastructure so agencies across a government could decrease redundancy and provide improved access, services, and transparency. While O’Reilly’s work focused on rethinking government across executive agencies, it’s applicable to the court systems, too. While legal proceedings are a different application, the distinction doesn’t change the conceptual model, as articulated by the Obama administration’s Digital Governance initiative, which comes in three layers.

“Our agencies are in possession of highly sensitive personal data, and they have a duty to protect it,” Nelson said in a statement. “Texans should not have to worry about their personal data being sold or shared with third parties without permission.”

Efforts to restrict the use of Social Security Numbers illustrate the irony that privacy protections, rather than being logically motivated by concerns about identity theft, are often wholly at odds with efforts to prevent identity theft. In reality, identity theft is often greatly facilitated by privacy, and the most effective tools for addressing identity theft involve the disclosure and use of additional personal information Government proposals to deny access to Social Security Numbers and other public records that can be used to authenticate identity turn the government into the unwitting accomplice of identity thieves. We must find better solutions.

The open flow of information is under attack in the United States as never before in an effort to protect privacy. This issue has united the far right and far left, Republicans and Democrats, federal and state governments, the Eagle Forum and the ACLU, even Phyllis Schlafly and Ralph Nader. In the past two years we have seen a flood of privacy legislation, regulation, litigation—including two supreme court cases upholding sweeping privacy laws, and negotiation.

The public record also raises concerns about information privacy. It is no exaggeration to say that access to and privacy of public records about individuals are virtually always in tension. Recently, however, pressures from European regulators and growing concern over the computerization of data have heightened both the importance and the difficulty of balancing access and information privacy.

Public records are a key source of information about consumer addresses. This information is used to help instantly verify identity when consumers apply for credit or seek to establish new cable or telephone service; protect against identity theft and credit card and check fraud; provide current contact information for owners of disused or delinquent accounts; and locate pension fund beneficiaries, heirs to estates, and owners of lost property.

The Lisk sisters vanished after getting off separate school buses in front of their home in 1997. Their bodies were found five days later after an intense search in the South Anna River, about 40 miles away. Through forensic evidence, their deaths were later linked to that of Silva, whose body was found in a swamp in King George County about a month after her disappearance the previous year.