I offered to help the Legislature in crafting an alternative to HB477...chances are that I am not the only person who has done so. Odds are, that there are Legislators that would not like what I have to say, anyhow. Any time that Chris Buttars and Ethan Millard agree on something, people should listen.
The Grama (Government Records and materials act) policy needs to be crated with the understanding that there should be no expectation of privacy when information is transferred on the public internet...period. You can craft any law that you want to, but it will have no effect. Somewhere, someone is going to squeal and embarrassing information will be made public. Think twice before you hit send. What can the Legislature do?
1. Identify the risks to the state for communicating over the Web.
2. Purchase and deploy equipment and software that will help mitigate the risks.
3. Develop a standard of expectation that even legislators are expected to abide by. There should also be realistic and enforceable punishments for those who violate this policy...from the Governor down to every elected and appointed city and town official in the state.
Who should develop this policy? Someone from the Governor's office, the state Attorney General, the state Director of Information Systems, the state Director of Personnel, someone from the press people of both parties respect like Carole Mikita, a member of the house and senate committee's responsible for Information Management in the state from each party, a commissioner from 4-6 counties in the state, a city/town council member from 4-6 cities/towns in the state and a recorder/scribe. It may even include a faculty member from one of our universities as a technical adviser. Having a policy ready for next Winter's legislative session will be plenty of time.
Once a policy, or expectation is developed, then electronic media forms transferred via electronic means and inside a virtual private network can be safely enveloped into Grama.
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