From Minnesota Public Radio:
When Minnesota governments farm work out to private companies, state law presumes most data "collected, received, stored, used, maintained or disseminated" for those projects is available to the public just as if the work was done by public employees.
That open records principle is at the heart of a dispute before the state Court of Appeals. The court takes up a case Friday testing the reach of Minnesota's Data Practices Act when it comes to outsourced work.