President of Russia: Vladimir Putin signed law on open data

President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law “On Amendments to the Federal Law” “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information” and the Federal Law “On Access to information about the activities of state bodies and local self-government”.

The Federal law is passed by the State Duma on 24 May 2013 and approved by the Federation Council on 29 May 2013.

The Federal law is aimed at the further implementation of policies to ensure the transparency of information on the activities of state agencies and local governments.

In particular, it is envisaged that the information is provided by public bodies and local self-government to the public by placing it in the Internet in the form of open data. This format of placement allows the automated processing of this information without changes by a person of its re-use.

The information in the form of open data is placed in the Internet with the requirements of the Russian legislation on state secrets and personal data. If the placement of information can lead to the spread of information constituting a state secret or violate the rights of data subjects, its post in the form of open data should be discontinued.

The order of classification of information to the public of information provided in the form of open data, the composition of public information about the activities of the state authorities of the Russian Federation and local self-government, as well as the procedure for mandatory of authorities of such information in the form of open data is established by the Government of the Russian Federation.

The Government of the Russian Federation shall determine the cases in which access to the information contained in state and municipal information systems, is provided for users in a single system of identification and authentication, as well as the order of using this system.