DIVERGENCE BETWEEN AUTHORITIES ON PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SPATIAL DATA IN POLAND

Abstract

The article aims to outline the divergence between authorities on publicly available spatial data, using the example of a dispute between the Polish Data Protection Authority and the Surveyor General of Poland concerning the publication of the numbers of land and mortgage register on the Polish spatial information website Geoportal. The issues of whether the number of the land and mortgage register is personal data and grounds for processing land register numbers from the DPA’s and Surveyor General’s legal perspectives are analyzed. Then, the reasons behind this conflict and, more broadly, the reasons behind disputes between authorities are examined. It is hypothesized that the main reason for this dispute is that the different aims drive different authorities empowered in the regulation of processing publicly available data.