Lose the Transparency Folks.

On October 1 a revision to Maryland's Public Information Act (MPIA) went into effect. As of October 1, custodians of documents may strip metadata from any documents. And, if you are the person or organization requesting the document, you get to pay for that! At the same time the Federal government is working on more transparency, our state and county government, led by our own Montgomery County Delegation, is working even harder to increase government secrecy.

The amendments were introduced by Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-District 18). You can read the changes here. Attorney Michael D. Berman writes about it here.

"As of October 1, 2011, Maryland will permit custodians of public records to scrub unprivileged metadata from those records, apparently at the requestor’s cost, before producing those records under the State analog to the Freedom of Information Act. The statute, SB 74, Chapter 536 of the 2011 Laws of Maryland, amends the State Public Information Act (“PIA”).

Chapter 536 initially broadens the scope of the PIA by providing that, with enumerated exceptions, the custodian of a public record “shall provide an applicant with a copy of the
public record in a searchable and analyzable electronic format” if: it is available; requested in that format; does not disclose confidential or protected information; and, is otherwise disclosable. As such it has been correctly applauded. M. Poinski, “Md. makes
strides towards government transparency,” The Daily Record (Apr. 20, 2011).

The statute, however, proceeds to state that a custodian “may remove
metadata from an electronic document before providing the electronic document to
an applicant. . . .” [emphasis added]. It provides two acceptable methods for
scrubbing metadata: 1) using a software program or function; or, 2) conversion
to a different searchable and analyzable format.

Removable metadata is statutorily defined as “information, generally not visible when an electronic document is printed, describing the history, tracking, or management of the
electronic document, including information about data in the electronic document
that describes how, when, and by whom the data is collected, created, accessed,
or modified and how it is formatted.”

Under the statute, metadata does not include a spreadsheet formula, a database field, an externally or internally linked file, or a reference to an external file or hyperlink.

A number of Courts have taken a different approach to metadata under public records
acts."

To read the entire article go here.

When this bill was first made public in Annapolis, the Society of Professional Journalists President Hagit Limor wrote letters to our legislators in Annapolis asking them to amend Senate Bill 740. Here is an excerpt from that letter:

Dear Senator:

The Society of Professional Journalists opposes Senate Bill 740 in its current form. We also oppose a proposed amendment that would allow a state agency to continue outsourcing public databases to a private contractor who then profits by charging significant sums for those public resources.

Despite the SB 740’s stated purpose of enhancing access to public records in electronic formats, we believe that this bill is so deeply flawed that it would undermine the access. The relevant issues are important and can be complex. We respectfully urge you to amend SB 740 to remove its flaws, or to refer it to summer study. This would allow the General Assembly to craft legislation that would uphold the public’s right know, truly meet SB 740’s stated goal, and bring the Maryland Public Information Act into accord with the federal Electronic Freedom of Information Act and with more progressive laws in other states.

For the entire letter go here.

For those of us who would like to see transparency in our government actions, this is just sad.