Metadata is public record, says Arizona Supreme Court.

• Position: OPEN RECORDS

Arizona's Supreme Court, in a precedent-setting ruling that may influence other states, has ruled that electronic metadata is public record under state law and must be disclosed as part of a public records request.

The ruling came in Lake v. City of Phoenix, a case involving a Phoenix police officer who filed a lawsuit accusing his superiors of backdating a document related to his work performance.

According to Wired.com, demoted Officer David Lake had fried a federal lawsuit accusing Phoenix of employment discrimination. He also filed a public records request for documents related to his performance, including notes written by his supervisor documenting his work performance. The city provided paper records, but his subsequent request for the records' electronic metadata was refused. He believed at least one of the paper documents had been backdated to before his demotion and wanted the metadata to prove it.

Metadata is hidden data embedded in electronic documents that shows when a document was created, accessed, or edited. The city argued that such "data about data" was not part of the public record. Releasing this type of information to the public would result in an "administrative nightmare" and force public officials to spend "countless hours" trying to identify the metadata, according to the city.

Two lower courts agreed with Phoenix, differentiating between "record" and "public record." But the state Supreme Court overruled them, its justices unanimously agreeing that "if a public entity maintains a public record in an electronic format, then the electronic version, including any embedded metadata, is subject to disclosure" under Arizona's public records laws.

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"It would be illogical, and contrary to the policy of openness underlying the public...