DATA PRACTICES POLICY
Request for Data about You and Your Rights as a Data Subject
Minnesota Statutes, sections 13.025 and 13.03 require this policy.
EFFECTIVE DATE: 4/24/2023
REVISION DATE:
AUTHORITY: Counties Providing Technology Joint Powers Board
I. WHAT IS A “DATA SUBJECT?”
A. When government has information recorded in any form (paper, hard drive, voicemail, video,
email, etc.), that information is called “government data” under the Government Data Practices
Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13). When we can identify you in government data, you are
the “data subject” of that data. The Data Practices Act gives you, as a data subject, certain
rights. This policy explains your rights as a data subject, and tells you how to request data about
you.
II. WHEN CPT HAS DATA ABOUT YOU
A. Counties Providing Technology (CPT) has data on many people, such as clients, employees,
vendors, job applicants, etc. We can collect and keep data about you only when we have a legal
purpose to have the data. CPT must also keep all government data in a way that makes it easy
for you to access data about you.
B. Government data about an individual have one of three “classifications.” These classifications
determine who is legally allowed to see the data. Data about you are classified by state law as
public, private, or confidential. Here are some examples:
- Public Data
a. The Data Practices Act presumes that all government data are public unless a state
or federal law says that the data are not public. We must give public data to anyone
who asks. It does not matter who is asking for the data or why the person wants the
data. - Private Data
a. We cannot give private data to the general public. We can share your private data
with you, with someone who has your permission, with our government entity staff
whose job requires or permits them to see the data, and with others as permitted by
law or court order. - Confidential Data
a. Confidential data have the most protection. Neither the public nor you can access
confidential data even when the confidential data are about you. We can share
confidential data about you with our government entity staff who have a work
assignment to see the data, and to others as permitted by law or court order. The
following is an example of confidential data about you: medical or psychological
information, names of reporters, adoption records, chemical dependency records,
all information related to the IRS, etc.2
III. YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE GOVERNMENT DATA PRACTICES ACT
A. As a data subject, you have the following rights. - Access to Your Data
a. You have the right to look at (inspect), free of charge, public and private data that
we keep about you. You also have the right to get copies of public and private data
about you. The 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.
b. Also, if you ask, we will tell you whether we keep data about you and whether the
data are public, private, or confidential.
B. 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 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 for your 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. This
permission is called informed consent. If you want us to release data to another person,
you may use the consent form we provide.
C. Protecting Your Data - The 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 that we determine a security breach has occurred and an
unauthorized person has gained access to your data, we will notify you as required by
law.
D. When Your Data are Inaccurate 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.
IV. HOW TO MAKE A REQUEST FOR YOUR DATA
A. You can ask to look at (inspect) data at our offices, or ask for copies of data that we have about
you, your minor child, or an individual for whom you have been appointed legal guardian. You
must make your request in writing and can send it to the Responsible Authority or Designee by
mail or email.
B. If you do not choose to use the data request form, your request should: - Say that you are making a request as a data subject, for data about you, under the
Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13). - Include whether you would like to inspect the data, have copies of the data, or both.
- Provide a clear description of the data you would like to inspect or have copied.
- Provide proof that you are the data subject or data subject’s parent/legal guardian.3
C. We require proof of your identity before we can respond to your request for data. If you are
requesting data about your minor child, you must show proof that you are the minor’s parent.
If you are a legal guardian, you must show legal documentation of your guardianship. Please
see the Standards for Verifying Identity on page 5. If you do not provide proof that you are the
data subject, we cannot respond to your request.
V. HOW WE RESPOND TO A DATA REQUEST
A. Upon receiving your request, we will review it. - We may ask you to clarify what data you are requesting.
- We will ask you to confirm your identity as the data subject. If we do not have the data,
we will notify you in writing within 10 business days. - If we have the data, but the data are confidential or not public data about someone else,
we will notify you within 10 business days and identify the law that prevents us from
providing the data. - If we have the data, and the data are public or private data about you, we will respond to
your request within 10 business days by doing one of the following:
a. Arrange a date, time, and place to inspect data in our offices, for free, or
b. Provide you with 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
c. After we have provided you with your requested data, we do not have to show you
the same data again for 6 months unless there is a dispute about the data or we
collect or create new data about you. - If you do not understand some of the data (technical terminology, abbreviations, or
acronyms), please tell the person who provided the data to you. We will give you an
explanation if you ask. - The Data Practices Act does not require us to create or collect new data in response to a
data request, 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 to respond to questions that are not about your data
requests, or that are not requests for government data.
VI. DATA PRACTICES CONTACTS
A. Responsible Authority
Executive Director
509 Atlantic Avenue, Morris, MN 56267
320-589-2110
cpt@cptmn.us4
B. Data Practices Compliance
Executive Director
509 Atlantic Avenue, Morris, MN 56267
320-589-2110
cpt@cptmn.us
VII. COPY COSTS – DATA SUBJECTS
A. Minnesota Statutes, section 13.04, subdivision 3 allows us to charge for copies. You must pay
for the copies before we will give them to you. We will not charge for copies if the cost is less
than $10.00.
VIII. ACTUAL COST OF MAKING THE COPIES
A. We will charge the actual cost of making copies for data about you. In determining the actual
cost, we include the employee-time to create and send the copies, the cost of the materials
onto which we are copying the data (paper, CD, DVD, etc.), and mailing costs such as postage (if
any).
B. If your request is for copies of data that we cannot copy ourselves, such as photographs, we will
charge you the actual cost we must pay an outside vendor for the copies.
C. The cost of employee time to make copies is $_______ per hour.
IX. STANDARD FOR VERIFYING IDENTITY
A. The following constitute proof of identity: - An adult individual must provide a valid photo ID, such as
a. a driver’s license
b. a state-issued ID
c. a tribal ID
d. a military ID
e. a passport
f. the foreign equivalent of any of the above - A minor individual must provide a valid photo ID, such as
a. a driver’s license
b. a state-issued ID (including a school/student ID)
c. a tribal ID
d. a military ID
e. a passport
f. the foreign equivalent of any of the above - The parent or guardian of a minor must provide a valid photo ID and either
a. a certified copy of the minor’s birth certificate or
b. a certified copy of documents that establish the parent or guardian’s relationship to
the child, such as
i. a court order relating to divorce, separation, custody, foster care5
ii. a foster care contract
iii. an affidavit of parentage - The legal guardian for an individual must provide a valid photo ID and a certified copy of
appropriate documentation of formal or informal appointment as guardian, such as
a. court order(s)
b. valid power of attorney
Note: Individuals who do not inspect data or pick up copies of data in person may be required to provide
either notarized or certified copies of the documents that are required or an affidavit of ID.
