3HTC.1.1 Right to Access Data About You Procedure

Chapter 3 Educational Policies

Procedure

Right to Access Data About You

The Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13) says that data subjects have certain rights related to a government entity collecting, creating, and keeping government data about them. You are the subject of data when you can be identified from the data. Government data is a term that means all recorded information a government entity has, including paper, email, flash drives, CDs, DVDs, photographs, etc.

Classification of Data About You

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. Data about you are classified by state law 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 the person wants the data.
2. Private data
   We cannot give private data to the general public, but you can have access to private data when the data are about you. We can share your private data with you, with someone who has your permission, with our government entity staff who have a work assignment to see the data, and to others as permitted by law or court order.
3. Confidential data
   Confidential data have the most protection. Neither the public nor you can get access even when the confidential data are about you. We can share confidential data about you with our college staff who have a work assignment to see the data, and to others as permitted by law or court order. We cannot give you access to confidential data.

Your Rights under the Government Data Practices Act

Hennepin Technical College 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. As a data subject, you have the following rights.

Access to Your Data

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 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.

When We Collect Data from You

When we ask you to provide data about yourself that are not public, we must give you a Data Practices Notice. 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.

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 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.

When Your Data are Inaccurate and/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.

How to Make a Request for Your Data

You can look at data, or request copies of data that Hennepin Technical College keeps about you. Make your request for data to the appropriate individual listed in the Data Practices Contacts section.

If you choose not to use the data request form, your request should include:

• You are making a request, under the Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13), as a data subject, for data about you.
• Whether you would like to inspect the data, have copies of the data, or both.
• A clear description of the data you would like to inspect or have copied.
• Identifying information that proves you are the data subject.
• Hennepin Technical College requires proof of your identity before we can respond to your request for data. If you are a guardian, you must show legal documentation of your guardianship.

How We Respond to a Data Request

Upon receiving your request, we will work to process it.

• If it is not clear what data you are requesting, we will ask you for clarification.
• If we have the data, but the data are confidential or private data that are 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 are 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. Information on copy charges is on page 6.

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.

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

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.

Data Practices Contacts

1. Responsibile Authority
   Joy Bodin, President
   Hennepin Technical College
   9000 Brooklyn Blvd
   Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
   763-488-2401
   Joy.Bodin@HennepinTech.edu 
2. Data Practices Compliance Official
   Michael Glausser
   Hennepin Technical College
   9000 Brooklyn Blvd
   Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
   Michael.Glausser@HennepinTech.edu 

Copy Costs - Data Subjects

Hennepin Technical College charges data subjects for copies of government data. These charges are authorized under Minnesota Statutes, section 13.04, subdivision 3. You must pay for copies before we will give them to you.

1. Most Other Types of Copies - Actual Cost
   

   The charge of copies is the actual cost of searching for and retrieving the data, and making the copies or electronically transmitting the date (e.g., sending the data by email.)

   In determining the actual cost of making copies, we factor in employee time, the cost of the materials onto which we are copying the data (paper, CD, DVD, etc.) and mailing costs (if any). If your request is for copies of data that we cannot reproduce ourselves, such as photographs, we will charge you the actual cost we must pay an outside vendor for the copies.

   The cost of employee time to search for data, retrieve data, and make copies is $20.00 per hour.

   If, because of the subject matter of your request, we find it necessary for a higher-paid employee to search for and retrieve the data, we will calculate the search and retrieval portion of the copy charge at the higher salary/wage.