GovNews Blog
Our GovNews Blog focuses on indexing and redacting methods and news regarding identity theft, land records, court technology, manual data entry, workflow productivity, and more. If you are a court clerk, county attorney, register of deeds, or secretary of state, this blog may be beneficial.
We are all in an arms race. Every time you strengthen your data defenses the thieves think of new ways to penetrate them. One of the best defenses is a strong common sense.
Don’t use your personal information (or your client’s information) if you don’t have to. And don’t store/save it if you don’t need to. If the data isn’t out “there”, it can’t be stolen.
My home state of Massachusetts can claim to be the first in many things in this country. The Boston Commons was the first public park. Boston Latin, not surprisingly also in Boston, was the first public school. Boston is also home to the first free municipal library and the first underground metro. The first modern World Series of baseball was played in Boston. These are just a few examples of the many ‘firsts’ that Massachusetts can claim.
The main factor in Florida’s delay results from the Florida Supreme Court being cautious. The Court made it a priority to ensure confidential information contained in court files does not get disclosed to those not entitled to see it. In this article, I focus on the rules of procedure the Court passed to limit what does get into the court file. One of the first steps taken by the court was to identify the types of documents filed with the court that filers and court personnel must recognize high a high probability of containing confidential information.
I’m inspired by our customers’ passion and vision for increasing efficiency, securing sensitive information and improving customer experience with existing resources. Nearly every day I notice how our accomplishments are tied to our customers’ drive for innovation. I’m grateful for their willingness to share their stories and define their challenges.
Here are three key points that will continue to guide Extract’s focus in 2016.
Courts face this challenge daily - how do you put documents online and not violate the privacy of litigants? It’s no easy task. Court files are a literal treasure trove of private information. The Florida court system has struggled with this issue for a long time. Florida is somewhat unique in that it has two competing provisions in its constitution. The problem is not limited to Florida. Every court faces the same issues. This is the first of five blog posts setting forth lessons learned from Florida’s almost fifteen-year experience putting documents online. Later articles in the series include recommended best practices using policy and technology tools such as intelligent redaction software to balance privacy and access.
When making a business case for automated redaction software it's important to look at how much sensitive data needs to be redacted. Using a hunt-and-redact approach might appear workable in a low volume setting, but understanding how much sensitive data actually exists could reveal a significant cost savings for your organization. There are two key factors to understanding how much sensitive data you are dealing with: the percentage of documents that contain sensitive information and the amount of sensitive information in those documents. Knowing the percentage of documents that need to be processed with redaction[automated redaction software] software is the first step in understanding whether or not an automated redaction solution is right for you.When making a business case for automated redaction software it's important to look at how much sensitive data needs to be redacted. Using a hunt-and-redact approach might appear workable in a low volume setting, but understanding how much sensitive data actually exists could reveal a significant cost savings for your organization. There are two key factors to understanding how much sensitive data you are dealing with: the percentage of documents that contain sensitive information and the amount of sensitive information in those documents. Knowing the percentage of documents that need to be processed with redaction[automated redaction software] software is the first step in understanding whether or not an automated redaction solution is right for you.
n my first post in this series, I made the case for ECM. A successful court Electronic Content Management System (ECMS) includes lots more than its hardware, software (read more in the blog post in this series dedicated to technology), and network components. From the first serious consideration of implementing ECM, through planning and implementation itself, and continuing after the system becomes established, the court must devote substantial care, consideration, and effort to management of the People, the Politics, and the Governance of ECM.
When making the business case for Electronic Content management, rarely does Process Improvement rise to the top of the financial justifications. But any court manager who has implemented ECM with workflow will tell you that ECM Workflow has generated far and away the greatest financial savings the court has ever experienced. Although an ECM system without workflow can provide a court with some real benefits and savings, fully leveraging ECM requires taking advantage of the power of configurable automated workflow.
With robust ECM, that means being able to receive/acquire any file type from any physical location. Courts have to be able to capture documents filed from litigants, attorneys and other agencies such as prosecutors, law enforcement, service agencies, etc. The documents may be filed at the court, received through standard mail, emailed or e-filed. Non-digital objects - paper documents - must be converted to digital objects. Paper documents are typically captured into the ECM through scanning. They arrive in various different forms.
While court managers know that court records management "Best Practices" include implementing Electronic Content Management (ECM), that hardly answers the question of how to leverage ECM to meet a particular court's needs in ways that will result in faster, more efficient, and higher quality court management.
If you have lived on this earth for more than a couple of decades, you do not have to look back very far to realize all of the conveniences technology has brought to our everyday lives. When it comes to the subject of online court records however, technology it seems has made things much more complicated. Gone are the days of “practical obscurity” when a trip to the courthouse to view a paper file inherently limited access to information and court staff had control over who was looking at records and for what purpose.
I attended my fifth Court Technology Conference (CTC) in Minneapolis, MN this past week. The educational track that resonated with me was How IT Can Design and Deliver Solutions to Create a High Performance Court. Here is a quote from the session description that really sums up the state of technology in the courts:
