The Florida Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability unanimously approved Senate Bill 782, Government Data Practices. Sponsored by Senator Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg), the bill is intended to move the state toward a more uniform approach to the security, collection, maintenance, disposal and sharing of data.
“Protecting Floridians’ personal information is of the utmost importance in today’s digital world,” said Senator Brandes. “Senate Bill 782 requires rules that govern the secure disposal of data collected by agencies and ensures that government retains only the information it needs. Additionally, increasing accessibility to the non-identifying information currently collected by the state government will increase transparency and accountability and most importantly further Florida’s economy.”
Senate Bill 782 moves Florida towards standardized data management and security by establishing a uniform protocol across all government and contracted websites for collecting, storing, disclosing, and ultimately disposing of personal identification information. Specifically the bill requires agency and contractor websites to disclose not only that certain collected information may be subject to disclosure as a public record, but also the entities’ privacy policy, reason for collecting the personal information, data sharing policy and the security measures taken to protect the individual’s information. It also directs agencies to establish appropriate timelines and schedules for properly disposing of data after its intended use, and defines personal identification information as data that may be used to identify a unique individual. Additionally, OPPAGA will be directed to create a report that identifies the records that contain personal identification information held by executive or legislative branches of government to give policy-makers a better understanding of what data is presently collected and how to better inform the public. Continue>>>
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