Access to Public Information and Sensitive Data

In a recent ruling (Federal Administrative Court of Appeals, Division II, "Association of State Workers v. Ministry of Modernization, on Law No. 16,986", October 25, 2018), and following the criteria established by a prior decision, the Federal Administrative Court of Appeals (Court of Appeals) recognized that under specific circumstances, public agencies may abstain from providing sensitive data when faced with public requests for information.

In this case, the Association of State Workers (Association) required the Ministry of Modernization (Ministry) to provide certain information on employment and salaries from the national public sector’s database, based on Law No. 27,275 on Access to Public Information.

Among other items, the information requested included the employees’ affiliation to worker unions. The Ministry mostly complied with the association’s request but did not provide information regarding employee union affiliation. Based on this, the Association filed a judicial claim requesting the courts to order the Ministry to inform about union affiliation.

The court of first instance dismissed the claim, stating that the Ministry had already provided the required information.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals revoked the lower court’s decision and ordered the Ministry to provide, within a 10-day period, either the missing information or a reason which could justify not complying with the Association’s request.

Even though the Ministry did not invoke that union information is considered sensitive data under Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326, the Court of Appeals held that this type of information cannot be made public without the data subject’s consent.

The court’s decision is important because it recognizes that the right to access public information can be limited. But only when it is properly substantiated and within the exceptions provided in the Law on Access to Public Information, such as in cases where the required information includes sensitive data and there is no express consent from the data subject.