ZH: Con­sul­ta­ti­on on the total revi­si­on of the IDG

The Can­ton of Zurich regu­la­tes data pro­tec­tion and the right of public access in the Law on Infor­ma­ti­on and Data Pro­tec­tion (IDG). The IDG is alre­a­dy 15 years old and is now to be total­ly revised.

The Media release Accor­ding to the report, the total revi­si­on is inten­ded, on the one hand, to make recom­men­da­ti­ons within the scope of a Eva­lua­ti­on of the law be imple­men­ted, inso­far as this has not alre­a­dy been done, but also pro­po­sals from the Can­to­nal Coun­cil which Digi­tal manage­ment” stra­tegy of the can­ton of 2018 and con­cerns of the can­ton and the muni­ci­pa­li­ties are to be taken into account, which obvious­ly can­not be mana­ged with a par­ti­al revision.

By decis­i­on of June 8, 2022, the Zurich Govern­ment Coun­cil aut­ho­ri­zed the Direc­to­ra­te of Justi­ce and Home Affairs to con­duct the con­sul­ta­ti­on pro­ce­du­re. The Reso­lu­ti­on names the fol­lo­wing Main con­cerns of the revision:

• Intro­duc­tion of a com­mis­sio­ner for the prin­ci­ple of publicity,
• Crea­te rules on open govern­ment data,
• Adap­t­ati­on of the pro­vi­si­ons on access to infor­ma­ti­on (free of charge),
• Adap­t­ati­on of the requi­re­ments for the legal basis for the pro­ce­s­sing of per­so­nal data,
• Regu­la­ti­on for pilot testing,
• Adjust­ment in the dis­clo­sure of per­so­nal data (in the area of admi­ni­stra­ti­ve assi­stance, no limi­ta­ti­on to indi­vi­du­al cases for non-spe­cial per­so­nal data),
• Adap­t­ati­on of the Law on the Orga­nizati­on of the Govern­ment Coun­cil and the Can­to­nal Admi­ni­stra­ti­on (LS 172.1) (data cata­log and data pro­tec­tion consultation).

The govern­ment coun­cil sta­tes the fol­lo­wing with regard to the com­mis­sio­ner for the prin­ci­ple of publicity:

The intro­duc­tion of a com­mis­sio­ner for the prin­ci­ple of public access is asso­cia­ted with costs. If this task is per­for­med by the data pro­tec­tion offi­cer in accordance with the pro­po­sal, this will result in addi­tio­nal costs of around CHF 500,000 (equi­va­lent to two to three full-time positions).

The Con­sul­ta­ti­on docu­ments can be found here by sear­ching for “data pro­tec­tion”: www.zh.ch/de/politik-staat/gesetze-beschluesse/vernehmlassungen.html:

• Preli­mi­na­ry draft of the revi­sed IDG
• Pro­po­sal to the Govern­ment Coun­cil with explanations
• Syn­op­tic pre­sen­ta­ti­on of the draft with fur­ther explanations

The con­sul­ta­ti­on peri­od lasts until Octo­ber 7, 2022.