University of Minnesota  Procedure

Information on Rights of Subjects of Government Data

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Questions?

Please use the contact section in the governing policy.

Under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, individuals who are subjects of data collected or maintained about them by the University of Minnesota have certain rights.

Right to know what data is kept about you and how it is classified

  1. Upon request, you may be informed about what data is kept about you and whether it is classified as public, private or confidential, You have the right to see data about yourself that is classified as public or private. If the University maintains data about you that is classified as confidential, you will be told that the information exists, but you will not be able to access the data.
  2. To access public or private data on yourself, you can make a written request to the Data Access and Privacy Office through the public records portal at the Data Request Center. If you are requesting routine personnel or student records, please make the request of the appropriate offices listed in Administrative Procedure: Requesting Information from the University of Minnesota.
    1. If you are requesting information on yourself, please be as specific as possible. If you have an employee or student ID number, please include that in your request (if you do not have that information, please include a birthdate or the last 4 digits of your SSN). The University reserves the right to request additional information to verify your identity.
    2. If we do not have the data, we will notify you in writing within 10 business days.
    3. If we have the data, but the data are confidential or private data that are not about you, we will notify you within 10 business days and state which specific law states you cannot access the data.
    4. If we have the data, and the data are public or private about you, we will respond to your request within 10 business days by sending you copies of the information through the data request portal. In some cases, there may be charges for copies of the data we possess regarding you.  We will collect charges for copies from you in advance of receiving the data.
  3. After we have provided you with access to data about you, we are not required to show you this data again for 6 months unless there is a dispute or we collect or create additional data about you.
  4. The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act does not require us to create or collect new data in response to a data request if we do not already have the data, or to provide data in a specific form or arrangement if we do not keep the data in that form or arrangement. In addition, we are not required to respond to questions that are not specific requests for data.
  5. Private data on you will only be shared with you, with someone who has your written permission, with University staff who need the data to do their work, and as permitted by law or court order.
  6. There is no charge to view data about yourself, but if you are requesting copies of data, there may be a charge for copies. You will be informed about any charges in advance.
  7. Upon request, you will be provided with a description of the content as well as the meaning of the public or private data that is maintained on you.

Right to data notice when private or confidential data is collected from you

If you are asked to supply private or confidential data about yourself, you must be informed by the requester of the intended use of the data, whether you are legally required to provide the data, any known consequences of giving or withholding the data, and which other agencies or persons are authorized by law to receive the data. This notice is commonly known as the Tennessen Warning.

Right to challenge the accuracy or completeness of data about you

  • If you think that data maintained by the University of Minnesota about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you may file a data challenge to try and have the data revised.

“Accurate” means that the data are reasonably correct and do not contain factual errors; “complete “means that the data describe the history of your contacts with the University of Minnesota in a complete way. This procedure is not a substitute for any University grievance process available to either students or employees.

  • To make a data challenge, write to the Data Access & Privacy Office at [email protected] and state clearly that you are making an accuracy or completeness challenge, identify the data you are challenging, and what you wish to be the outcome of your data challenge. You will receive a decision within thirty days as to whether the Responsible Authority agrees with your challenge. If it agrees, your data will be amended appropriately. If the University disagrees or believes that your request pertains to something other than the accuracy or completeness of the data, the challenge will be denied. You have the right to appeal the University’s decision to deny your data challenge to the MN Department of Administration.
  • If you believe that public or private data that the University of Minnesota maintains about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to include a statement of disagreement regarding the data. If the disputed data is released to a third party, the University will include your statement of disagreement regarding the data.

Right to have your data protected

We are required under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act to protect your data. We have established appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data are safe.

In the unfortunate event that we determine a security breach has occurred and an unauthorized person has gained access to your data, we will notify you as required by law.

Identification verification process

To provide you with your rights as a subject of data, we will need to verify your identity. The following constitute proof of identity if you are not a student or employee with an active UMN email address:

A valid photo ID, such as,

  • a driver’s license
  • a state-issued ID
  • University of Minnesota issued ID
  • a tribal ID
  • a military ID
  • a passport
  • the foreign equivalent of any of the above.