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CT High Court Rules GIS Data Can Be Kept Secret [UPDATED]

Posted by timothy on from the dihydrogen-monoxide dept.

kinema writes "A few days ago the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled that the town of Greenwich's Department of Information Technology does not have to release the images and GIS data that the town keeps. The court found that mandatory disclosure of the data under the state's freedom of information statues is exempted under a recently passed state law that allows information to be kept secret 'when there are reasonable grounds to believe that their disclosure may result in a safety risk.' I'm sure I'm not the only one in the audience that has a hard time swallowing this. I am looking into filing a similar request to obtain the GIS data for the Portland Oregon metro area. As the data is currently available to anyone willing to shell out the nearly $900 per year, the local government isn't going to be able to argue that the data could be used by terrorists and should therefore be kept from the public which paid untold amounts for the data to be collected through their taxes." Update: 01/11 16:51 GMT by M : This story is incorrect. Although the case was just heard by the court, there has been no decision either for or against the disclosure of the GIS information.

2 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Greenwich CT??? by ekeup1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why are we even remotely worried about the possibility of a terrorist incident in Greenwich, CT????

    I'd be much more worried about the VERY detailed satelite images available at http://terraserver.microsoft.com/.
    You can get sat images of ALMOST all of our military bases and probably every big city.

  2. Security through obscurity by affliction · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is no security at all.

    I can go down to the airport and pay someone to take me an hour long tour around town. I'll take my new Canon 8 megapixel camera along. If I wanted to do some damage, those pictures are going to work just as will as the GIS pictures. Might cost me a little more in short term, but what does that matter?

    As an aside, Helena, Montana gives away GIS data to anyone who asks for it. The taxpayers of Helena payed for those pictures and that information in the first place. It's only right that we have free access to it. As a matter of fact, I have a hard drive around here with 10 gigs of photos and infrastructure maps of Helena and the surrounding area just for asking.