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Re: Open records legislation



The Canadian Federal Privacy Act sort of has an end date for privacy.  Under
this legislation there is a section in the Privacy Regulations which states:

"6.   Personal information which has been transferred to the copntrol of the
Public Archives by a government institution for archival or historical
purposes may be disclosed to any person or body for research or statistical
purposes where (a) the infomration is of such a nature that disclosure would
not constitute and unwaranted invasion of th eprivacy of the individual to
whom the infomration relates ... (c) 110 years has elapsed following the
birth of the individual to whom the information relates;  or (d) in cases
where the information was obtained through the taking of a census or survey,
92 years have elapsed following the census or survey containing the
information."

In addition, secion 3(m) of the Privacy Act states that the definition of
Protectable personal information does not include "information about an
individual who has been dead more than twenty years", just as the Texas law
suggests.  While this can be awkward to establish when taken into account
with the above-mentions provisions of the Privacy Regulations, we can
establish which information can be released and which must be protected.

Just to add to the fun nationally, we now have a new piece of legislation
which extends privacy protection to the public sector.  Under this
legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic   Documents
Act, personal privacy concerning information recorded in a manner covered by
this legislation is extinguished (s. 7(3)(h) after the  earlier of (i) one
hundred years after the record containing the information was created, and
(ii) twenty years after the death of the individual whom the information is
about.

This then, is generally the Canadian status regarding what Carolyn Foster has
referred to as the termination of privacy, at least at the federal level.

Daniel German
ATIP Analyst
National Archives of Canada
(613) 996-3125
dgerman@archives.ca

NB  The above comments and opinions are teh author's own and do not reflect
those of his employers
---------- Original Text ----------

From: "Carolyn Foster" <cfoster@TSL.STATE.TX.US>, on 2000-05-25 12:50 PM:

The posting earlier today of Colorado's open records act prompts me to ask,
especially of other archivists for state governments, do any of your open
records laws have a specific date for termination of privacy?  Texas' open
records opinions make it clear that privacy terminates with death, but that
is really (!) hard to administer.  What I'm wondering is if there are state
laws out there that say the "closed because of personal privacy
restrictions" documents may be opened xx years after date of creation?  If
any can say, "Yes," I'd appreciate the citation.

Carolyn Foster
Assistant Director for Archives
Archives and Information Services Division
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

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