Florida Times-Union

Open-records idea troubles advocates

By SEAN LAVIN, The Times-Union

Open-records advocates are giving special attention to a St. Augustine lawmaker’s proposal to protect personal information over fears it could have unintended consequences for a host of documents.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Bill Proctor, would prevent governments or businesses from disclosing an individual’s name, postal or e-mail addresses and Social Security and bank account numbers, among other information.

To accomplish that, it would allow the entire record with such information to be shielded from view.

“The basic question is to what level of privacy is a person entitled,” Proctor said. “There is the problem of identity theft. That’s not a small problem.”

Critics fear preventing access to less-sensitive portions of those documents could hamper the way society keeps watch over the government.

“It would just close the door to a whole host of records that we use regularly to oversee our government,” said Adria Harper, the director of the Florida’s First Amendment Foundation.

In an extreme case, Harper said, a newspaper could be prevented from printing the name of a killer unless the killer gave permission for the personal information to be disclosed.

Proctor said the bill was crafted broadly at first but would be tweaked before passing to try and alleviate concerns.

“There’s an ongoing series of discussions about this bill, and I want to hear all parties,” Proctor said.

Another bill to protect personal information Proctor sponsored drew less serious concerns from the open-records advocates. Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, also sponsored that legislation.

Reproduced courtesy of the Florida Times-Union.
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