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Opinion Column by Jean Maneke

Published: March 07, 2006
Last Updated: March 07, 2006

In the last month, Congress has spend considerable time revising the Patriot Act, which was enacted after the attacks on this country on Sept. 11, 2001, in an effort to provide added security. The debate has focused on whether certain information that is accessible to the government about you and me should be limited as this act is renewed.

This week's sunshine law focus (March 12-18) serves to remind us again that the government continues to collect a lot of data about each of us. Not only does it monitor our earnings in order to collect income taxes from us, but it monitors what we buy (personal property declarations), the value of our real estate holdings (for real estate taxes) and how often we vote, for example.

It also has the ability to collect much more information about us. The government can obtain information on the books we read, the movies we rent, the people we call on our home phones and cell phones, the e-mail messages we send from our computers, where we make credit card purchases and how much we are spending. While most of us lead very boring lives, and we laugh when we think about what the government would find if we gave it the chance to explore all this private data about us, it is still a scary thought to most of us that this information could be gathered into one place about us.

And that is where the sunshine laws in this country offer us the greatest protection. While we may not be happy that the government can collect this information, we are able to ask what information the government has on us and to judge whether the government has a right to ask for that kind of information. None of us likes the idea that this information is gathered, but if we don't know what the government has collected and what it is doing with that information, we run a greater risk that something will happen to this data that we as citizens would not want to happen.

In the last year, many of us have taken advantage of the new federal law to obtain a free copy of our credit report. Congress was well aware of problems that identity theft has caused and the need for citizens to be able to look at the information contained in their credit reports on a regular basis. Access to such information is critical to ensuring that one's credit rating is up-to-date and also ensuring that an error has not been made by the credit reporting companies. It also gives us the ability to see if accounts exist that we know nothing about—one of the ways that thieves may steal our identity. Accessing this information is an ideal way to ensure that the system functions as it should.

This is true whatever information is being collected about us. The best way to ensure its accuracy, and to ensure our personal information is safe, is to know who is collecting information, what is being collected, where this information is being stored, when it will be destroyed, why it is being collected, and how it is being collected.

Missouri's Sunshine Law, found in chapter 610 of Missouri's revised statutes, provides information on what information is open to the public and how you may access this information. And the federal Freedom of Information Act, found in Volume 5 of the United States Code, beginning at section 552, contains this same information for data collected by the federal government. In both cases, these laws protect your right to know what information is held by the government.

Both laws contain "exceptions," which are rules as to when the government may keep secret certain information it collects. Both laws also set out the process that you must use to request access to information from the government.

And you, members of the public, use these laws in a variety of ways. You may ask the government about what information it is collecting on you. You may use the sunshine laws when you seek information about your family's past, in order to complete genealogical records. You may use the information to compare your house to others in your neighborhood for assessment purposes. You may need access to information on actions taken by governmental bodies, such as city councils or county commissioners or legislators, to understand why actions were taken or to protest the actions that were taken. You may simply be seeking historical information about your community.

Whatever the use, having this access allows you to monitor this information, ensure that the information is correct, that it is not being kept for improper purposes by your government, and that the actions taken by your government, often in reliance on the information it has, are correct.

Sunshine laws don't get much attention in terms of the importance of functioning government in this country, but as we take time this week to reflect on the benefits we gain from such laws, may you also recall that the important freedoms this country was founded upon included the right to participate in government and this is one law that ensures that your ability to act on that right to participate. May there always be sunshine upon our country's governments, at all levels.

Kansas City attorney Jean Maneke answers news media questions for the Missouri Press Association hotline.