Confidentiality and Access: understandings and procedures for the adequate availability of government information and open data

Abstract

This paper presents part of the understanding process held in Fiocruz concerning questions about transparency, access to information and government data, through the proper delimitation and creation of procedures to deal with the restricted universe of sensitive information in public institutions. The understanding of access to information as a rule, and the secrecy as an exception, principle prescribed in the Brazilian Access to Information Law, does not exempt public institutions from thinking in a careful way about the information that should be protected, at the risk of jeopardizing national strategic rights and interests due to the indiscriminate diffusion of sensitive information. This paper presents the understanding established in the activities of the Permanent Commission for Access to Information of Fiocruz, which culminated in the “Procedimento para Tratamento e Classificação de Informações Sigilosas na Fiocruz “, an instrument for the guidance of professionals of the institution to perform the proper identification and treatment of sensitive information, an activity that promotes transparency and dissemination of data and ostensive information.