Rights of Data Subjects

Responsible Authority: Jessica Palmer-Denig, Chief Administrative Law Judge

Data Practices Compliance Official: Abigail Rankin, General Counsel

Who is a “Data Subject”?

When a government entity has information recorded in any form, that information is “government data” under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13). When we can identify you in government data, you are a “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, your minor child, or someone for whom you are the legal guardian.

Data About You

The Court of Administrative Hearings (CAH) collects and keeps data about you only when it has a legal purpose to have the data. CAH must keep all government data in a way that makes it easy for you to access data about you. 

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. 

Public Data

The Data Practices Act presumes that all government data is public unless a state or federal law says that the data is 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

We cannot give private data to the general public. We can share your private data with you, with someone who has your permission, with CAH staff whose job requires or permits them to see the data, and with others as permitted by law or court order.

Confidential Data

Confidential data has the most protection. Neither the public nor you can access confidential data even when the confidential data is about you. We can share confidential data about you with our CAH staff who have a legitimate work need to see the data, and to others as permitted by law or court order.

Rights as a Data Subject

As a data subject, you have the following rights.

Access to Your Data

You have the right to request and inspect any public and private data CAH keeps about you free of charge. CAH may charge for copies of data. You may look at public data, free of charge, before deciding whether to pay for copies. If we have provided the requested data to you in the last six months, we will not provide the same again. 

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

When We Collect Data From You

When we ask you to provide private or confidential data about yourself, 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 provide data about yourself without being asked to do so or in a case before the court, we may use that information for legitimate business purposes. We will maintain the security of your private or confidential information as required by law.

Please note that filing private or confidential information with a court may make that information public. If you are concerned about this, you may seek a protective order, request that all or part of a hearing record be sealed, or ask for a hearing to be closed to the public. The judge hearing your case may grant reasonable relief to protect the security of your data. 

Protecting Your Data

The Data Practices Act requires us to protect your data. We have established appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data is safe. If 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 Is 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. To exercise this right, you must notify the Responsible Authority of CAH in writing, describing the nature of the disagreement about the data.

How to Request Your Data

You can ask to 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. The CAH website contains instructions on how to submit data practices request.

We may require proof of your identity before we can respond to your request for data. If you are requesting data about your minor child, we may request proof that you are the minor’s parent. If you are a legal guardian, we may request legal documentation of your guardianship. If you do not provide proof that you are the data subject upon such request, we may decline to respond to your request.