The EU Data Governance Act (the Act) is now applicable after a 15-month grace period since the Act entered into force in June 2022.
The aim of the Act is to encourage the sharing of publicly held data. Both personal and non personal data are in scope. Where personal data is involved, the Act is designed to compliment the GDPR.
In order to facilitate sharing, public bodies will be required to implement technical measures such as anonymisation, pseudonymisation etc. to protect data which is shared. There are requirements on public bodies to assist those who wish to access data that the public body cannot share, by seeking the individual’s consent to reuse their data. The situations in which exclusive data reuse agreements can be used will be reduced, time frames for public bodies to decide on the reuse of data are now in operation and the Act provides for a central register which details what data sets are held by public bodies.
A link to the text of the Act can be found here.
