Right to information

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

No person shall be denied information about themselves that was collected and retained as part of a business activity. No person shall be denied information about themselves that was collected and retained as part of a government activity, except for information collected by the Investigative Branch. No government agency shall deny the public access to unclassified information.

Some examples of this right are that a person must be given access to their own medical records, their billing records with any provider, their criminal record, credit report, educational record, transcripts, and more. If a company retains information about anyone, then that company has a duty to disclose that information to the subject of the information on demand. In order to fulfill that duty, all such organizations that keep information about people have a duty to disclose what kind of information they retain, so that people can demand to see it. If an organization is collecting and retaining information on people and not disclosing the kind of information they collect and retain, anyone who knows about this has a duty to fight people’s rights and make it known. A non-disclosure agreement requiring someone to keep quiet about such knowledge would not be legally enforceable because it requires the violating other people’s rights.

The “business activity” part is intended to limit this right to information collected by a vendor who sold or will try to sell something to the person, or a business that collects and sells information about people (such as a credit bureau). The “government activity” is anything the government collects, except information collected by the Investigative Branch because disclosing that information could help suspects evade prosecution.

The third part of this right is similar to the Freedom of Information Act in the United States.

It’s important to note that the “right to information” is not a right to access “all” information, and doesn’t apply to information collected by a private individual who does not have a business relationship with the person and does not have a business relationship with anyone else regarding the information collected.

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