The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has initiated an inspection of the Republic Geodetic Authority from the aspect of compliance with the Law on Personal Data Protection. The Commissioner's authorised officers will begin with on-site inspection tomorrow.

The aim of the inspection is to review the application of the Law on State Land Survey and Cadastre, more specifically its implementing regulation titled the Bylaw on Compilation and Maintenance of Real Estate Cadastre, which incorporates forms that are subsequently made publicly available and include personal data, including: personal identification number, surname, name, name of a parent, place of residence and address.

While the Commissioner does not question and indeed upholds the principles of transparency, assurance and legal certainty, which the Law on State Land Survey and Cadastre promotes, he nevertheless believes it is obvious they should not be "enforced" through the application of the said Bylaw.

Pursuant to Article 42 of the Constitution, personal data processing must be regulated by a law. No bylaw (including of course the one applied in this case, which was enacted in 1999 and predates both the Law on State Land Survey and Cadastre and the Law on Personal Data Protection by a good ten years Data Protection) can provide proper basis for personal data processing. Furthermore, taking into account the fact that the purpose of personal data processing is to provide legal certainty in property law relations, it should be examined whether this could be achieved by making fewer personal data available than is currently the case.

Once the inspection procedure has been completed, the Commissioner will in any case engage with the line Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure to amend and modify the Law on State Land Survey and Cadastre in order to bring it in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.