[MyData & Open Data] [open-government] Examples of dates of birth being published as part of the public record?

Mon Sep 2 16:47:12 UTC 2013

On Monday, 2 September 2013 at 15:41, Ton Zijlstra wrote:

> It needs to be possible to establish ownership of real estate clearly. There is a law on the cadastral office that specifically makes personal data in cadastral data an exception to data protection requirements. Much as with the company register.
> 
> 

I am not sure how it works in the NL, but in the UK, the exemptions for public registers mainly relate to "non-disclosure"; they are not a blanket exemption that takes the database out of data protection altogether.

http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/exemptions

It is worth keeping it in mind for all the debates around open data and privacy that in the EU public personal data is still protected. This may seem counterintuitive.

In the US, in general, once that personal data is out it becomes fair game, but there are calls for changing that approach as online access fundamentally transforms the nature of public records.

> It predates reuse and bulk availability though. I am sure that as cadastral data will become more open (the ministry is e.g. demolishing current revenue models around the data, and full openness is mandated before 2015) there will be more discussion on data protection in the context of reuse. Although I suspect the onus there will be on the reuser, not at the dataholder.

Reusers have legal restrictions. e.g. http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4431 

But the data holders always have to ensure the disclosure complies with the principles of data protection. 

Publishing more data than strictly required, or making it available online without any restrictions on fishing expeditions or bulk downloads, may not comply with the principle of proportionality. 

Enabling online access from outside the European Economic Area could be in breach of the principle against uncontrolled export. 

You may need to consider some (horror, gasp!) DRM-style system.

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