Does 'Public Access' Imply 'Ubiquitous' or 'Immediate'? Issues Surrounding Public Documents Online

2011 ◽  
pp. 100-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Miller ◽  
Andrew Urbaczewski ◽  
Wm. David Salisburg
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
Individual Privacy ◽  
Ubiquitous Access ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Access To Documents

In the information age, various entities (e.g., citizens or business concerns) are now able to access and gather large amounts of publicly available information online, which has obvious benefits. However, there are perhaps unfavorable consequences to this information gathering, and little attention has been paid to these. This chapter highlights the various issues that are created by having unfettered access to documents online, as well as the ability of citizens and investigators to compile databases of personal information on individuals. We cite existing laws to support the position of having limits on the freedom of access, and we propose several strategies for consideration in balancing the rights of the public to access public information while yet protecting and celebrating individual privacy. While the majority of this paper deals with American laws and history, international examples are also noted. In the post-9/11 world, a great deal of reasonable concern has been raised by governmental information gathering. We suggest that equal attention should be paid to ubiquitous access to public records, even by individuals and non-government agencies, and potential concerns for individual privacy that this access might raise.

Does Public Access Imply Ubiquitous or Immediate? Issues Surrounding Public Documents Online

2008 ◽  
pp. 3352-3365
Author(s):  
David W. Miller ◽  
Andrew Urbaczewski ◽  
Wm. David Salisburg
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
Individual Privacy ◽  
Ubiquitous Access ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Access To Documents

In the information age, various entities (e.g., citizens or business concerns) are now able to access and gather large amounts of publicly available information online, which has obvious benefits. However, there are perhaps unfavorable consequences to this information gathering, and little attention has been paid to these. This chapter highlights the various issues that are created by having unfettered access to documents online, as well as the ability of citizens and investigators to compile databases of personal information on individuals. We cite existing laws to support the position of having limits on the freedom of access, and we propose several strategies for consideration in balancing the rights of the public to access public information while yet protecting and celebrating individual privacy. While the majority of this paper deals with American laws and history, international examples are also noted. In the post-9/11 world, a great deal of reasonable concern has been raised by governmental information gathering. We suggest that equal attention should be paid to ubiquitous access to public records, even by individuals and non-government agencies, and potential concerns for individual privacy that this access might raise.

scholarly journals La protección de la lengua castellana en el marco del multiparlamentarismo autonómico: el acceso a la información pública en español en la web oficial de los Parlamentos autonómicos // The protection of the Spanish language in the framework of the regional parliaments: the access in Spanish to the public information on their official websites

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (102) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Ainhoa Uribe Otalora
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Estudio De Caso

Resumen:La Constitución española establece en su artículo 3 que el castellano es la lengua oficial del Estado, al tiempo que reconoce la existencia de un plurilingüismo. Sin embargo, existen territorios donde los ciudadanos se enfrentan a una situación desigual a la hora de emplear el castellano como lengua vehicular. Esta situación es aún más grave si la desigualdad procede de los poderes públicos. El artículo es un estudio de caso del acceso a la información pública en lengua castellana, no en vano, junto al mandato del artículo 3 CE, el artículo 9 CE obliga a los poderes públicos a publicar las normas (lo que supone publicarlas también en español), al tiempo que el principio de publicidad se vio reforzado por la aprobación de la Ley 19/2013, de 9 de diciembre, de Transparencia, Acceso a la Información Pública y Buen Gobierno, y por las respectivas leyes de transparencia autonómicas, que regulan el acceso de los ciudadanos a la información pública. Dicho acceso a la documentación de carácter público debe hacerse, por ende, en la lengua oficial del país, así como en las lenguas cooficiales en sus respectivos territorios. Por ello, el artículo analiza el mayor o menor grado de acceso en lengua castellana a los documentos que publican ensu página web los distintos parlamentos autonómicos, sean de naturaleza legal, política, económica o de otro tipo. En consecuencia, aquí se realiza un estudio de caso centrado en las seis Cámaras autonómicas con lenguas cooficiales, para verificar el grado de cumplimiento del artículo 3 CE, el artículo 9 CE, y el el artículo 12 de la Ley 19/2013, de 9 de diciembre, de transparencia, acceso a la información pública y buen gobierno. Son los siguientes: 1) El Parlamento Vasco (Eusko Legebiltzarra); 2) el Parlamento Navarro (Nafarroako Parlamentua); 3) el Parlamento Catalán (Parlament de Catalunya); 4) el Parlamento Valenciano (Corts Valencianes); 5) el Parlamento de Baleares (Parlament de les Illes Balears); y 6) el Parlamento Gallego (Parlamento de Galicia). El objetivo último de la presente investigación es abordar unas conclusiones que permitan fortalecer y hacer cumplir el mandato constitucional, así como permitir a los ciudadanos hacer uso de su lengua oficial.Summary:I. Introduction: Approach of the Study Object. II. Legal Approach to the question. 2.1. The article 3 of the Constitution: background and meaning. 2.2. The constitutional principles of multilinguism. 2.3. The regional legal framework of bilingualism 2.4. Jurisprudence on the Spanish language. 2.5. The right to get access to law and public information in Spanish language. III. The praxis of the regional parliaments in the compliance with the article 3CE, the art. 9 CE, and the art. 12 of the Act of Transparency. IV. Conclusions. V. Bibliography.Abstract:The Spanish Constitution establishes in the article 3 that the Spanish is the official language of the State. It also enshrines the existence of mutilinguism in the country. However, there are some territories where citizens face inequalities when using Spanish as their mother tongue. This situation is even harder if the inequalities come from public powers. The article focuses on the citizens’ access to public information in Spanish. In fact, not only the Spanish is the official language (art. 3 CE), but also the article 9 of the Constitution forces the public authorities to publish laws (which means also to publish them in Spanish), as well as the Act of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Government (Ley 19/2013) enables citizens to get access to public information (which means to access to the documents also in Spanish). Hence, the articleanalyses the level of public access in Spanish to the documents uploaded on the websites of the regional parliaments. Therefore, it is a case study focused on the six regional parliaments with more than one official language. They are the following ones: 1) The Basque Parliament (Eusko Legebiltzarra); 2) the Parliament of Navarra (Nafarroako Parlamentua); 3) the Parliament of Catalonia (Parlament de Catalunya); 4) the Valencian Parliament (Corts Valencianes); 5) the Parliament of the Balearic Islands (Parlament de les Illes Balears); and 6) the Galician Parliament (Parlamento de Galicia). It will study the level of compliance with the article 3 and 9 of the Constitution and the article 12 of the Act of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Government (Ley 19/2013). The aim of the article is to get to conclusions that enable the legislator to strengthen and force the compliance with the constitutional mandate, as well as to empower citizens to use the official language.

Access to and Use of Publicly Available Information

2011 ◽  
pp. 1977-1990
Author(s):  
Philip Leith
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Access Rights ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Available Information

Public information presumes that the information is somehow public and, presumably, that this can be utilized by members of the public. Unfortunately, things are more complex than this simple definition suggests, and we therefore need to look at various issues relating to public information which limit access and usage, for example, the nature of privacy, sharing information within government, court records, ownership of public information, and freedom of information. The exemplars dealt with later in the article will demonstrate the legal constraints upon the usage of public information in a digital environment and help raise awareness of such limitations. Public information cannot be formally defined (as a list of items, say) except to indicate it is that information which has historically been available to the public in print form and/or through some generally open process. No formal definition is possible because this depends to a very large extent upon cultural differences. For example, tax returns are viewed as private documents in the United Kingdom open only to the tax authorities (unless otherwise authorized, e.g., in criminal proceedings) whereas in Sweden they can be accessed by any member of the public. Furthermore, the source of public information may also vary: what information is produced by a public authority in one country may not be so carried out in another. The legal constraints upon access and use of public information include the following: • Privacy/confidentiality of public data • Sharing and processing of public data collected for divergent purposes • Freedom of information rights to public data • Copyright and database rights in public data Access to public information may be enabled through a formal public register, through statutory mechanism, or other less formal means. Note that being accessible does not necessarily mean that users are free to use this information in any way they wish: copyright licenses in particular are not always passed along with access rights, so that the public may inspect a document but may not use it in other ways (such as republishing). Reasons for this are obvious: the collection of data by government can be expensive and there can be opposition to subsidising commercial activity from the public purse. In the United States, federal materials are explicitly excluded from copyright protection, but this is rarely the case in Europe (see www.hmso.gov.uk for the UK situation). Another example is that it is possible in most countries to attend local criminal courts or peruse local newspapers and draw up a database of prosecutions in the local area. The database could include information on drunk drivers, sexual offenders, and burglars, and it would be possible to include a wide variety of information—all of it, clearly, of a public nature. Indeed, such activities have been common for many years where credit agencies have collected information from courts on debtors and made this available on a commercial basis. But there are questions: Is all court-based information public? What limitations might be found in some countries and not in others to the dissemination of this information? See Elkin-Koren and Weinstock Netanel (2002) for the general tendency toward commodification of information and Pattenden (2003) for professional confidentiality where it impinges upon public service. On a more mundane level, judgments from most European courts are copyright of the relevant government or agency. In the United Kingdom, differing again, there is some dispute over whether the judge or Court Service owns the judgment, and frequently the only text version of a judgment is copyright of the privately employed court stenographer. Thus the publicly available information which is being discussed here is that which emanates from a public authority and can be accessed by members of the public, but will usually have some constraint and limitation on how it can be reused by the public. We are interested in outlining these constraints.

Historical Records

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Access ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
Code Of Practice ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Public Record ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Information Regime

Chapter 7 examines the relationship between the freedom of information regime established by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the pre-existing statutory regime governing the keeping of public records under the Public Records Act 1958. It describes the processes by which public records are transferred to the Public Record Office and opened to public access, and the progressive replacement of the ‘30-year rule’ with a ‘20-year rule’. It explains the separate, but related, concept of ‘historical records’ introduced by the 2000 Act, and the removal of certain exemptions by reference to the age of documents. The special procedures applicable to requests for information in transferred public records that have not been opened to the public are set out. The chapter then summarizes the guidance given to relevant authorities about the above matters by the Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice and the National Archives.

scholarly journals What You Can Scrape and What Is Right to Scrape: A Proposal for a Tool to Collect Public Facebook Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512094070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moreno Mancosu ◽  
Federico Vegetti
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Published Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
The Social ◽  
Application Programming ◽  
Ethical And Legal Issues ◽  
Programming Interface

In reaction to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has restricted the access to its Application Programming Interface (API). This new policy has damaged the possibility for independent researchers to study relevant topics in political and social behavior. Yet, much of the public information that the researchers may be interested in is still available on Facebook, and can be still systematically collected through web scraping techniques. The goal of this article is twofold. First, we discuss some ethical and legal issues that researchers should consider as they plan their collection and possible publication of Facebook data. In particular, we discuss what kind of information can be ethically gathered about the users (public information), how published data should look like to comply with privacy regulations (like the GDPR), and what consequences violating Facebook’s terms of service may entail for the researcher. Second, we present a scraping routine for public Facebook posts, and discuss some technical adjustments that can be performed for the data to be ethically and legally acceptable. The code employs screen scraping to collect the list of reactions to a Facebook public post, and performs a one-way cryptographic hash function on the users’ identifiers to pseudonymize their personal information, while still keeping them traceable within the data. This article contributes to the debate around freedom of internet research and the ethical concerns that might arise by scraping data from the social web.

The Fight for Access to Government Records round Two: Enter the Computer

1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigman L. Splichal ◽  
Bill F. Chamberlin
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rapid Pace ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Government Records

Federal, state, and local governments are converting public records to computer formats at a rapid pace, creating novel issues with respect to public access. Record requesters are finding access laws, written when most documents were on paper and stored in file cabinets, inadequate when applied to requests for records held in government computers. As a result, requesters have turned to the courts to define the contours of public access in the computer age. Several court cases suggest government agencies are using the fact information is in a computer as an excuse to withhold records. This paper underlines the need to rewrite access laws to acknowledge the pervasive role of computers in government. It proposes a fifteen-point approach to computerized information to help guide the public and media in their quest to ensure computers are used to enhance public access, not undermine it.

Information and Orientation Needs of Blind and Partially Sighted People in Public Transportation: BIOVAM Project

2001 ◽  
Vol 1779 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Marin-Lamellet ◽  
Georges Pachiaudi ◽  
Blandine Le Breton-Gadegbeku
Keyword(s):  
Visual Impairment ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Protocols ◽  
Technical Solutions ◽  
Partially Sighted

Presented are results of the BIOVAM project in France concerning the problems experienced by the visually impaired who use public transportation, such as buses, subways, and trains. The project focused on information gathering and orientation processes in the public transportation context. The BIOVAM approach uses a questionnaire survey to identify the main difficulties that public transportation users with visual impairment must manage. The approach includes a review of promising devices that could reduce these difficulties, such as personal information systems and tactile pavements. An overview of the results obtained from the survey is presented, addressing the use of buses and subways. The main technical solutions considered by the project are described, and the research protocols that are to be used in the field experiments are presented. The results of the BIOVAM project could be used to make concrete recommendations to include the specific needs of travelers with visual impairment in the design of a public transport infrastructure.

Access to and Use fo Publicly Available Information

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Philip Leith
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Access Rights ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Available Information

Public information presumes that the information is somehow public and, presumably, that this can be utilized by members of the public. Unfortunately, things are more complex than this simple definition suggests, and we therefore need to look at various issues relating to public information which limit access and usage, for example, the nature of privacy, sharing information within government, court records, ownership of public information, and freedom of information. The exemplars dealt with later in the article will demonstrate the legal constraints upon the usage of public information in a digital environment and help raise awareness of such limitations. Public information cannot be formally defined (as a list of items, say) except to indicate it is that information which has historically been available to the public in print form and/or through some generally open process. No formal definition is possible because this depends to a very large extent upon cultural differences. For example, tax returns are viewed as private documents in the United Kingdom open only to the tax authorities (unless otherwise authorized, e.g., in criminal proceedings) whereas in Sweden they can be accessed by any member of the public. Furthermore, the source of public information may also vary: what information is produced by a public authority in one country may not be so carried out in another. The legal constraints upon access and use of public information include the following: • Privacy/confidentiality of public data • Sharing and processing of public data collected for divergent purposes • Freedom of information rights to public data • Copyright and database rights in public data Access to public information may be enabled through a formal public register, through statutory mechanism, or other less formal means. Note that being accessible does not necessarily mean that users are free to use this information in any way they wish: copyright licenses in particular are not always passed along with access rights, so that the public may inspect a document but may not use it in other ways (such as republishing). Reasons for this are obvious: the collection of data by government can be expensive and there can be opposition to subsidising commercial activity from the public purse. In the United States, federal materials are explicitly excluded from copyright protection, but this is rarely the case in Europe (see www.hmso.gov.uk for the UK situation). Another example is that it is possible in most countries to attend local criminal courts or peruse local newspapers and draw up a database of prosecutions in the local area. The database could include information on drunk drivers, sexual offenders, and burglars, and it would be possible to include a wide variety of information—all of it, clearly, of a public nature. Indeed, such activities have been common for many years where credit agencies have collected information from courts on debtors and made this available on a commercial basis. But there are questions: Is all court-based information public? What limitations might be found in some countries and not in others to the dissemination of this information? See Elkin-Koren and Weinstock Netanel (2002) for the general tendency toward commodification of information and Pattenden (2003) for professional confidentiality where it impinges upon public service. On a more mundane level, judgments from most European courts are copyright of the relevant government or agency. In the United Kingdom, differing again, there is some dispute over whether the judge or Court Service owns the judgment, and frequently the only text version of a judgment is copyright of the privately employed court stenographer. Thus the publicly available information which is being discussed here is that which emanates from a public authority and can be accessed by members of the public, but will usually have some constraint and limitation on how it can be reused by the public. We are interested in outlining these constraints.

scholarly journals Dualisme Penyelesaian Sengketa Permohonan Informasi Publik

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 672-676
Author(s):  
Kartika Widya Utama ◽  
Yudhitiya Dyah Sukmadewi
Keyword(s):  
Good Governance ◽  
Public Information ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Information Transparency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Body

Public Information Transparency after 1998 reformation has gained momentum since the issuance of Law No. 14 of 2008 concerning Transparency of Public Information. Public access to obtain information owned by the state administrative body does not always run smoothly. The role of the Administrative Court as a Judiciary that guarantees the upholding of Good Public Order Principles, especially the principle of public transparency, was tested. This article will discuss the extent of the role of PTUN in disputes over requests for public information, which in the process will also discuss the part of the Public Information Commission in requests for public information in terms of authority and competence. As a conceptual article, the conclusion that can be drawn is that the state administrative dispute procedure needs to be clearly stated, whether it is mandatory to use the procedure for requesting public information through the Public Information Commission or whether it can use a claim mechanism through the State Administrative Court. Keyword: Open Government, Administrative Court, Good Governance Principle Abstrak Keterbukaan Informasi Publik pasca reformasi semakin mendapatkan momentum semenjak diterbitkannya Undang-Undang No. 14 Tahun 2008 tentang Keterbukaan Informasi Publik. Akses masyarakat untuk mendapatkan informasi yang dimiliki oleh badan administrasi negara tidak selalu berjalan dengan lancar. Peran PTUN sebagai Badan Peradilan yang menjamin tegaknya Asas-asas Umum Ketertiban yang Baik khususnya asas keterbukaan publik pun diuji. Artikel ini akan membahas sejauh mana peran dari PTUN dalam sengketa permohonan informasi publik yang dalam prosesnya akan membahas pula mengenai peran Komisi Informasi Publik dalam permohonan informasi publik dari sisi kewenangan dan kompetensi. Sebagai artikel konseptual, kesimpulan yang dapat diambil adalah perlu ditegaskan dengan jelas prosedur sengketa administrasi negara apakah diwajibankan menggunakan prosedur permohonan informasi publik melalui Komisi Informasi Publik ataukah dapat menggunakan mekanisme gugatan melalui Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara. Kata Kunci: Keterbukaan informasi publik, PTUN, Asas-Asas Umum Pemerintahan yang Baik

Privacy vs. Security

Biometrics ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 1562-1574
Author(s):  
Mark Walker
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Personal Privacy ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
The Public ◽  
Individual Privacy ◽  
Surveillance Technology ◽  
Develop Technology ◽  
Technological Means

This chapter bridges the dilemma created by intrusive surveillance technologies needed to safeguard people's security and the potential negative consequences such technologies might have on individual privacy. It begins by highlighting recent tensions between concerns for privacy and security. Next, it notes the increasing threat to human life posed by emerging technologies (e.g., genetic engineering and nanotechnology). The chapter then turns to a potential technological means to mitigate some of this threat, namely ubiquitous microscopic sensors. One consequence of the deployment of such technology appears to be an erosion of personal privacy on a scale hitherto unimaginable. It is then argued that many details of an individual's private life are actually irrelevant for security purposes and that it may be possible to develop technology to mask these details in the data gleaned from surveillance devices. Such a development could meet some, perhaps many, of the concerns about privacy. It is also argued that if it is possible to use technology to mask personal information, this may actually promote the goal of security, since it is conjectured that the public is likely to be more willing to accept invasive technology if it is designed to mask such details. Finally, some applications to society's current uses of surveillance technology are drawn. Policy recommendations for surveillance organizations such as the National Security Agency are briefly canvassed.

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