Should the information you enter when buying a hunting or fishing license be public data available to anyone? That's the question being debated at the Legislature, says the Bemidji Pioneer.

Sen. Mary Olson, DFL-Bemidji, wants to keep it private. And she's chair of the omnibus data practices bill conference committee.

But Mark Anfinson, attorney counsel for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, says such data should be public and open government lobbyists are trying to find a compromise Olson can accept.

The state DNR's database has information about licenses and permits involving hunting, fishing, trail use, recreational vehicles and other activities, Anfinson said. The database has been off limits for the past three years because the DNR has been using motor vehicle and driver’s license data, thus skirting federal restrictions on public access.

“But next year the DNR will discontinue that use, and so whether public access is restored will depend on what the Legislature decides this session,” Anfinson informed MNA members. “The Senate has taken the position that all of the DNR licensing and permit data should be classified as private, ignoring decades of public access to this information, which produced many benefits and virtually no documented problems.”

Olson thinks it should be private.  “This is personal data that people have to give in order to be able to go fishing, or in order to go hunting, so it’s not as though they have a choice," she said. "They have to provide this information if they want to be able to do the kinds of things that are within the jurisdiction of the DNR.”