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At first, Kristi Anderson needed answers about how her son, a University of Minnesota college freshman, wound up on the riverbank near campus where he died after last being seen at a campus-area party. She thought his smart phone would provide some answers.

his 2013 death in below-zero temperatures

 was ruled accidental, Anderson still craved the pictures, writings and other files on his phone and a fingerprint-protected computer that would be mementos of his last days.

"We're his parents," Anderson said Tuesday at the Capitol, alongside husband, Bill. "We want this information, everything Jake touched. Anything he came into contact with to us is priceless. So the information that could be in that phone, the case aside or anything like that, it's going to be relevant to everyone, not just in our tragic circumstances but if you lose an elderly person or a loved one."

The Andersons, from Orono, are appealing to Minnesota lawmakers to pass a law defining and governing digital access. The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed legislation Tuesday doing just that. 

The bill would define digital assets and permit people to designate access to the electronic records, either through a will or an online consent form. In Jake Anderson's case, the phone account was in his father's name but there was no directive allowing the parents to see its contents.

“He didn’t have a will," Kristi Anderson told lawmakers. "What incoming college freshman is going to have a will?”

Sen. Dave Osmek, R-Mound, said people would have to affirmatively provide consent and could choose the type of information they would be comfortable releasing to those they designate upon their death.

"You can identify what is it you are going to be giving away, what you are going to give in case you're not around," he said, adding, "This is not a global opportunity to snoop at all."

He said there are about a dozen states that have 

passed similar laws defining digital access

 and a couple of others considering it presently.

There was no audible dissent in the voice vote that moved the bill from committee to the Senate floor, but there are still concerns legislators are sorting through.

Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, said she's concerned about portions of the bill that apply to court-appointed conservators managing the estate of a living person, often someone elderly or disabled.

"We have a lot of vulnerable adults and seniors robbed by their supposed trustees and powers of attorneys," Goodwin said.

Osmek said there are existing laws to prosecute such wrongdoing.

Even if passed, the proposed law wouldn't apply to the Andersons because their son hadn't offered the consent it would require. But Kristi Anderson said it's about helping others avoid situations like theirs from now on.

"No other family should have to go through what we've gone through," she said outside the hearing.

Politics and Government News

Capitol View®

Brian Bakst

Author

After their son's death, an Orono family seeks a law governing access to digital data on phones and other electronic devices.

Parents seek digital data law after son’s death

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