The second life of public data. The digitization committee adopted the bill

On Wednesday, the Parliamentary Committee for Digitization introduced five technical amendments to the draft law on data management. The Act will enable the re-use of protected data collected by public sector entities, including: for scientific purposes.

During the first reading, the committee proposed five technical amendments to the draft data management law. Two amendments were intended to remove excessive clarification of the provisions, and three were of a clarifying nature.

The proposed regulations aim to enable the full application of the EU Data Governance Act (DGA) in Poland. The project provides for the possibility of reusing protected data collected by public institutions. As indicated in the Regulatory Impact Assessment (IAS), only strictly defined entities will be able to receive anonymized data sets, i.e. universities and other higher education institutions, scientific institutes conducting research and public administration bodies.

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The data may be transferred, among others: for scientific research purposes

According to the project, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) will provide assistance to public sector entities in considering applications for the re-use of protected data. The tasks of Central Statistical Office employees will include, among others: registration, analysis and initial verification of applications, and then assistance in preparing an offer or a negative decision, as well as assistance with anonymization and pseudonymization of data sets before making them available.

The project also regulates data intermediation services, which will facilitate the operation of, among others, companies and organizations specializing in data transfer between entities.

The regulations also include regulations on data altruism, i.e. voluntary sharing of data by individuals and organizations for socially useful purposes, in accordance with respect for privacy, including the right to withdraw consent to data processing. This issue is to be addressed by data altruism organizations established for this purpose.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office will be responsible for registering and monitoring data altruism organizations. The new tasks of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office will also include, among others: handling requests from data intermediation service providers.

The DGA requires Member States to provide a remedy for decisions regarding the re-use of protected data. Therefore, the draft act states that the appeal body for decisions issued by almost all public sector entities will be the Minister of Digital Affairs.

The project covers the issue of transfer of non-personal data to third countries. The provisions assume that the President of the Personal Data Protection Office will be able to impose penalties on enterprises, data altruism organizations and citizens for the transfer of such data that is not compliant with the DGA.

Now the Sejm will discuss the project in plenary.

The Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European data management, known as DGA, entered into force on June 23, 2022 and is directly applicable in the Member States from September 24, 2023. As noted in the OSR, however, it is necessary to adopt additional national provisions to apply the regulation. The EU legislator left Member States some freedom in shaping the institutional, organizational and regulatory environment for the purposes of applying the DGA provisions. (PAP)

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