The Guangdong Provincial Measures for the Administration of Public Data were promulgated, clarifying the target of data transactions for the first time

21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhang Yating reported from Guangzhou

Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Public Data Management Measures (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") were issued and will be formally implemented on November 25, 2021, to further regulate the sharing, openness and utilization of public data, release the value of public data, and help improve government governance capabilities and public service levels. As the first government regulation on public data management at the provincial level in Guangdong, the Measures have many institutional innovations, including the first time in China to explicitly include public service provider data into the scope of public data, the first time to truly implement "one number and one source" at the provincial legislative level, and the first time to clarify the target of data transactions.

In terms of definition, in view of the long-standing unclear scope of public data, the Measures point out that "public data refers to the recording of information in electronic or non-electronic form by public management and service agencies in the process of performing their duties and providing public services in accordance with the law". This is the first time in China that the data produced or obtained by "organizations with public service functions" in the process of providing public services has been explicitly included in the scope of public data.

"Compared with the 'government data' commonly used in previous normative documents, the concept of 'public data' expands the scope of data collection and aggregation, which can not only help the government provide higher quality public services, improve governance capabilities, and make it more convenient for enterprises and the masses to do things; at the same time, it will play an important role in effectively promoting the development and utilization of public data resources in our province and promoting the marketization of data elements." Liu Wenjing, a professor at Jinan University Law School, said.

In terms of management, "one number and one source" is the basic principle of the state sharing basic data with administrative organs, with the purpose of ensuring that each piece of basic data has and only one statutory collection authority, which is responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of the data. In accordance with the authority set by the current laws, regulations and rules, the Measures sort out the rights and responsibilities of the subjects of the collection, approval and provision of the basic data of natural persons, the basic data of legal persons and unincorporated persons, and the basic data of natural resources and spatial geography one by one.

"The Measures are the first time in China that the principle of 'one number, one source' has been truly implemented in provincial legislation, laying a solid foundation for the whole life cycle supervision of public data." Liu Wenjing said. For example, the "Measures" make it clear that the public security organs are responsible for household registration data; the civil affairs departments and township people's governments are responsible for the marriage registration and adoption registration data of mainland residents; and the health data are the responsibility of the competent health departments, township people's governments and subdistrict offices.

At the application level, the Measures for the first time clarified that the target of data transactions is data products or data services generated through innovative and entrepreneurial activities such as scientific research, product research and development, consulting services, data processing, and data analysis. "This complete and clear provision on the subject of data transactions responds positively to the expectations of all walks of life and is expected to set a pioneering example for the whole country in promoting the lawful, safe and orderly development of data transactions." Long Shun, associate professor of the School of Information Science and Technology of Jinan University and an expert in data mining informatization, said.

At the same time, the Measures also establish for the first time at the provincial level a mechanism for the use of data subjects authorized by third parties, stipulating that "sensitive data involving trade secrets, personal information and privacy or corresponding licenses may be provided to authorized third parties for use after being authorized and agreed by data subjects". Based on this, Guangdong Province is actively exploring the use of public data asset vouchers to boost the development of the digital economy. On October 16 this year, Guangdong issued the country's first public data asset certificate, and next, the 28.5 billion pieces of public data gathered through the first round of public data resource census are expected to be completely activated.

The protection of the rights and interests of data subjects is one of the important contents of the Measures. The Measures stipulate data use rights, data security, data authorization, dispute resolution and other aspects, and refine the data security responsibilities of each stage of public data processing, and establish the government's regulatory responsibilities for data transactions.

Yang Pengfei, deputy secretary-general of the Guangdong Provincial Government and director of the Provincial Government Service Data Management Bureau, said that a number of institutional innovations in the Measures are derived from the summary of the practical experience of the reform and construction of digital government in Guangdong Province in recent years, with the purpose of effectively solving the problems of repeated collection of basic data, unclear data aggregation paths, and difficulty in tracing data quality problems, and further promoting the sharing, openness, development and utilization of public data. In particular, through the division of management responsibilities, the division of security responsibilities, and the clarification of legal responsibilities, it lays the foundation for the full sharing of data of public management and service agencies from the system, which is of practical significance for improving the level of digital government construction and promoting the development of the digital economy.

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