Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfaction with the secrecy surrounding government policy development and decision making. In recent years Access to Information Act has also been used. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. Also variously referred to as open records, or sunshine laws, governments are typically bound by a duty to publish and promote openness. In many countries there are constitutional guarantees for the right of access to information, but these are usually unused if specific support legislation does not exist. Additionally, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 has a target to ensure public access to information and the protection of fundamental freedoms as a means to ensure accountable, inclusive and just institutions.
The role of information commissioner differs from nation to nation. Most commonly it is a title given to a government regulator in the fields of freedom of information and the protection of personal data in the widest sense. The office often functions as a specialist ombudsman service.
The Privacy Act of 1974, a United States federal law, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies. A system of records is a group of records under the control of an agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifier assigned to the individual. The Privacy Act requires that agencies give the public notice of their systems of records by publication in the Federal Register. The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of information from a system of records absent of the written consent of the subject individual, unless the disclosure is pursuant to one of twelve statutory exceptions. The Act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amendment of their records and sets forth various agency record-keeping requirements. Additionally, with people granted the right to review what was documented with their name, they are also able to find out if the "records have been disclosed" and are also given the right to make corrections.
The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, is the United States federal freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information and documents controlled by the U.S. government, state, or other public authority upon request. The act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures, and includes nine exemptions that define categories of information not subject to disclosure. The act was intended to make U.S. government agencies' functions more transparent so that the American public could more easily identify problems in government functioning and put pressure on Congress, agency officials, and the president to address them. The FOIA has been changed repeatedly by both the legislative and executive branches.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat is the administrative branch of the Treasury Board of Canada and a central agency of the Government of Canada. The role of the Secretariat is to support the Treasury Board and to provide advice to Treasury Board members in the management and administration of the government.
Proposition 59 was an amendment of the Constitution of California that introduced freedom of information or "sunshine" provisions. It was proposed by the California Legislature and overwhelmingly approved by the voters in an initiative held as part of the November 2004 elections.
Manitoba Finance is the department of finance for the Canadian province of Manitoba.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level. Its application is limited in Scotland to UK Government offices located in Scotland. The Act implements a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election, developed by David Clark as a 1997 White Paper. The final version of the Act was criticised by freedom of information campaigners as a diluted form of what had been proposed in the White Paper. The full provisions of the act came into force on 1 January 2005.
The Access to Information Act or Information Act is a Canadian Act providing the right of access to information under the control of a federal government institution. As of 2020, the Act allowed "people who pay $5 to request an array of federal files". Paragraph 2. (1) of the Act ("Purpose") declares that government information should be available to the public, but with necessary exceptions to the right of access that should be limited and specific, and that decisions on the disclosure of government information should be reviewed independently of government. Later paragraphs assign responsibility for this review to an Information Commissioner, who reports directly to parliament rather than the government in power. However, the Act provides the commissioner the power only to recommend rather than compel the release of requested information that the commissioner judges to be not subject to any exception specified in the Act.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario was established as an officer of the Legislature by Ontario's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which came into effect on January 1, 1988. The current commissioner is Patricia Kosseim.
Manitoba Justice, or the Department of Justice, is the provincial government department responsible for administering the Crown Law justice systems in the province of Manitoba.
The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, commonly known as FOIPOP, is the public sector privacy law and access to information law for the Province of Nova Scotia.
Canadian privacy law is derived from the common law, statutes of the Parliament of Canada and the various provincial legislatures, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Perhaps ironically, Canada's legal conceptualization of privacy, along with most modern legal Western conceptions of privacy, can be traced back to Warren and Brandeis’s "The Right to Privacy" published in the Harvard Law Review in 1890, Holvast states "Almost all authors on privacy start the discussion with the famous article 'The Right to Privacy' of Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis".
The Minister of Sport, Culture and Heritage is the cabinet position in Manitoba that oversees the Department of Sport, Culture and Heritage. Since January 2023, the Minister has been Obby Khan.
Archives of Manitoba, formerly the Provincial Archives of Manitoba until 2003, is the official government archive of the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located at 200 Vaughan Street in Winnipeg, where it has been established since January 1971.
Manitoba Sport, Culture and Heritage is the department of the Government of Manitoba responsible for managing government programs and services that support the sport, art, culture, and heritage of the province, through developing, supporting, promoting, and celebrating the identity and well-being of Manitoba and its communities.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), known until 2010 as the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner is an independent Australian Government agency, acting as the national data protection authority for Australia, established under the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010, headed by the Australian Information Commissioner.
The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is an Act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The Act legislates access to information held by public institutions in Ontario subject to specific requirements to safeguard the personal information of individuals.
The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is an Act of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia governing the public sector. It is commonly abbreviated "FIPPA" or "FOIPPA", though other Canadian provinces such as Alberta, and Ontario, use similar FIPPA acronyms for their public sector privacy law. "BC FIPPA" can be used as an acronym for further differentiation. FIPPA holds public bodies "accountable for their information practices". The legislation defines public sector requirements for collection, use, disclosure and safeguarding of individuals' personal information, decrees individuals' right to access public sector records, including access to an individual's "own 'personal information' as well as records in the custody or control of a 'public body' "—subject to specific exemptions. FIPPA requires public bodies to "take reasonable steps to protect the privacy of personal information they hold". Independent oversight and enforcement for FIPPA rests with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.
The Illinois Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140/1 et seq., is an Illinois statute that grants to all persons the right to copy and inspect public records in the state. The law applies to executive and legislative bodies of state government, units of local government, and other entities defined as "public bodies". All records related to governmental business are presumed to be open for inspection by the public, except for information specifically exempted from disclosure by law. The statute is modeled after the federal Freedom of Information Act and serves a similar purpose as freedom of information legislation in the other U.S. states.
