About the publication of Colorado state employee compensation data

By Special to The Denver Post | Special to The Denver Post

June 3, 2008 at 4:44 a.m.

Note: We have discontinued our publishing of the Colorado State Employee Salary database. This article is being left for archival purposes.

Some are concerned about privacy issues raised by publishing state employee salaries.

I want you to know that we have spent nearly a year with this data making sure that it was accurate and would not reveal information that could compromise your identity or safety. The information we’ve made available does not reveal Federal Social Security Numbers or Colorado-specific identity numbers, work or home addresses, work or home phone numbers or work or home e-mail addresses. It is published in a way that keeps Google and other search engines from indexing it (see Google’s index of our salary database section pages here – click on the “Cached” link next to a result to see what Google can see on that page. For comparison, see Google’s index of our news section pages) .

You should know that these databases have been published in other states with no identity or safety repercussions. I’m confident it won’t happen here. This information is not and has never been secret – the state will provide it to any citizen that asks for it.

Again, we thought long and hard about publishing this information online. If you have further questions or comments, please check out our “Frequently asked questions” page. If your question isn’t answered there, please post it in the comments below or call The Denver Post’s Talk Back comment line at (303) 330-0435. You can also submit a Letter to the Editor (letters must include full name, home town and daytime phone number) at openforum@denverpost.com.