Gene Johnson of The Associated Press reports:
Metadata associated with electronic documents — such as the “to” and “from” fields in e-mails — is a public record subject to disclosure, Washington’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The 5-4 ruling concerned a Shoreline resident’s request under the Public Records Act for an e-mail that had been sent to the city’s deputy mayor. The resident received a copy of the e-mail without the metadata and subsequently filed a request for the information.
“Metadata may contain information that relates to the conduct of government and is important for the public to know,” Justice Susan Owens wrote in O’Neill v. City Of Shoreline.
Read more on The Olympian. Although this is not the first time a court has ruled this way, I think we all need to remain cognizant than when we e-mail public officials, if anyone requests their email under public records, our email address, name, etc. would be revealed.