Accessing your data

Minneapolis must keep all government data in a way that makes it easy for you to access data about you. Also, we can collect and keep only those data about you that we need for administering and managing programs that are permitted by law.

You have the right to look at, free of charge, public and private data that we keep about you. You also have the right to get copies of data about you. The Government Data Practices Act allows us to charge for copies. You have the right to look at data, free of charge, before deciding to request copies.

Also, if you ask, we will tell you whether we keep data about you and whether the data are public, private, or confidential.

The Government Data Practices Act presumes that all government data are public unless a state or federal law says that the data are not public. State law classifies data about you as public, private, or confidential.

1. Public data: We must give public data to anyone who asks; it does not matter who is asking for the data or why.

2. Private data: We cannot give private data to the general public, but you have access when the data are about you. We can share your private data:

• with you
• with someone who has your permission
• with City staff who need the data to do their work
• as permitted by law or court order.

3. Confidential data: Confidential data have the most protection. We cannot give you access to confidential data. We can share confidential data about you:

• with City staff who need the data to do their work
• to others as permitted by law or court order

As a parent or legally appointed guardian, you have the right to access public and private data about minor children (under the age of 18).

Minors have the right to ask the City not to give data about them to their parent or guardian. If you are a minor, we will tell you that you have this right. We may ask you to put your request in writing and to include the reasons that we should deny your parents access to the data. We will make the final decision about your request based on your best interests. Note: Minors do not have this right if the data in question are educational data maintained by an educational agency or institution.

When we collect data from you

When we ask you to provide data about yourself that are not public, we must give you a notice. The notice is sometimes called a Tennessen warning. The notice controls what we do with the data that we collect from you. Usually, we can use and release the data only in the ways described in the notice.

We will ask you for written permission if we need to use or release private data about you in a different way, or if you ask us to release the data to another person. We call this informed consent.

Protecting your Data

The Government Data Practices Act requires us to protect your data. We have established appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data are safe.

In the unfortunate event of a security breach where an unauthorized person has gained access to your data, we will notify you as required by law.

When your data is wrong or incomplete

You have the right to challenge the accuracy and/or completeness of public and private data about you. You also have the right to appeal our decision. If you are a minor, your parent or guardian has the right to challenge data about you.

All requests for review of the accuracy and/or completeness of data we maintain about you must be made in writing to the City's Responsible Authority. The Responsible Authority will review these requests and respond according to the requirements of the law within thirty (30) days.

How we respond to a data request

Once you make your request, we will work to process your request. If it is not clear what data you are requesting, we will ask you for clarification.

• If we do not have the data, we will notify you within 10 business days.
• If we have data, but it is confidential or private and not about you, we will notify you within 10 business days and state which specific law says you cannot access the data.
• If we have the data, and the data is public or private data about you, we will respond to your request within 10 business days, by doing one of the following:
  • arrange a date, time, and place to inspect data, for free, if your request is to look at the data, or
  • provide you with copies of the data within 10 business days. You may choose to pick up your copies, or we will mail or fax them to you. We will provide electronic copies (such as email or CD-ROM) upon request if we keep the data in electronic format.

After we have provided you with access to data about you, we do not have to show you the data again for 6 months unless there is a dispute or we collect or create new data about you.

If you do not understand some of the data (technical terminology, abbreviations, or acronyms), please let us know. We will give you an explanation if you ask.

The Government Data Practices Act does not require us to create or collect new data in response to a data request if we do not already have the data, or to provide data in a specific form or arrangement if we do not keep the data in that form or arrangement. (For example, if the data you request are on paper only, we are not required to create electronic documents to respond to your request.) If we agree to create data in response to your request, we will work with you on the details of your request, including cost and response time.

In addition, we are not required under the Government Data Practices Act to respond to questions that are not specific requests for data.

Proof of identity

Some data is only available to the person who is the subject of the data or an authorized representative.  We may require proof of identity before responding to your request.

Learn the type of identification required