[Cantzelerïă/Chancery] Privacy and the Upcoming Census

[Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB]

The Chancery has assessed current laws on privacy and the Census, in light of a proposal by the government to use the latter as a tool in order to gather information that citizens may freely provide on their skills and interests. The Chancery is guided by relevant laws and believes that under el Lexhatx, certain information about citizens shall not be shared outside of the legal procedures put in place.  However, discussions with the government have identified a method of pre-approval with which the Chancery and government are both comfortable.  This approach will allow citizen privacy to be protected while still using the tools already available to the state.

There are two statutes that the Chancery is drawing upon to form its opinion. The first is El. Lex. C.1.2.2.3 which states:

Any information collected during the census that would individually identify any person or persons, including their contact information, shall be withheld from the public for to protect individual privacy, consistent with Lex.D.8. The only exception is that citizens may opt to have their e-mail address shared with party leaders, pursuant to Lex.D.8.5.4. Census information shall not be released under any "freedom of information" or "government transparency" requests, notwithstanding any other provisions of el Lexhatx.

The second statute, El. Lex. D.8.4.1 defines more clearly who may access certain protected information:

Personal information such as, but not limited to, private mailing addresses, contact telephone numbers and private email addresses, given names, ages, date of births and national security numbers shall be held on file and shall only be accessed by the Secretary of State or The King without prior permission of the person to whom the information relates to. In all other instances permission must be obtained by the person to whom the personal information relates to.

Taken together, the Chancery believes that any identifiable information, including given names, may only be accessed by either the Secretary of State or the King.  This includes information on a citizen's hobbies or interests, which may be used to identify them.  This information may not be released outside of the Chancery except in a fashion that prevents associating it with any single individual.  Not every citizen of Talossa has chosen a Talossan version of their name, and so the legal risk is that some protected information may be provided to an unauthorized person if the data is shared as envisioned in the above entitled proposal, and a great number of Talossans have opted out of sharing their personal data as a matter of course.

However, a citizen may freely provide permission for his her or protected data to be released, if so chosen. Accordingly, it is possible to allow citizens to authorize the release of certain sections of the Census, as long as these requirements are met:
Citizens must be given enough information to make an informed decision.
Each individual must be given the choice whether or not to complete this section of the Census, and the Census will be considered "complete" even without these optional questions which would be authorized for release.

Any questions or concerns may be addressed to the Chancery, which will continue to strive to protect the privacy rights of citizens.



Sir Txec dal Nordselvă,
Secretár d'Estat

[Üc R. Tärfă]

However, a citizen may freely provide permission for his her or protected data to be released, if so chosen. Accordingly, it is possible to allow citizens to authorize the release of certain sections of the Census, as long as these requirements are met:
Citizens must be given enough information to make an informed decision.
Each individual must be given the choice whether or not to complete this section of the Census, and the Census will be considered "complete" even without these optional questions which would be authorized for release.

Just a technical question: that part should be included in the resolution, or it will be inserted in the census form by the Chancery?

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

However, a citizen may freely provide permission for his her or protected data to be released, if so chosen. Accordingly, it is possible to allow citizens to authorize the release of certain sections of the Census, as long as these requirements are met:
Citizens must be given enough information to make an informed decision.
Each individual must be given the choice whether or not to complete this section of the Census, and the Census will be considered "complete" even without these optional questions which would be authorized for release.

Just a technical question: that part should be included in the resolution, or it will be inserted in the census form by the Chancery?

Good point. I hope the Chancery can include this language.

[Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB]

fantastic to see that citizens' privacy is being taken seriously.. Also, the Chancery is working diligently to look at ways of incorporating citizens' skills more efficiently into the community...  Well done.

There really is no need to keep posting on topics like this. It's becoming a problem.