The Belgian Data Protection Authority (“DPA”) announced on 15 September 2021 that it has approved its first national code of conduct under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – “GDPR”) by Decision No. 04/2021 of 8 April 2021.
The Code of Conduct has been drawn up by the National Chamber of Notaries and adapts the provisions of the GDPR to the processing activities it carries out.
In essence, the Code of Conduct covers four areas:
– the appointment of a data protection officer;
– the measures to be taken to ensure security in the processing of personal data;
– the measures to be taken by the notary vis-à-vis his staff to make them aware of the protection of personal data and the precautions to be taken when they have to process personal data;
– the right to information of the data subjects
All Belgian notaries responsible for data processing are subject to the Code of Conduct to harmonise the data protection measures they take when carrying out their notarial activities.
Without prejudice to the supervisory and sanctioning powers of the DPA, the National Chamber of Notaries is responsible for monitoring compliance with these rules.
Compliance with a code of conduct approved by a national data protection authority does not constitute a certificate of compliance of the processing activities carried out by its members. However, this instrument provided for in the GDPR makes it possible to establish binding “best practices” at the level of a specific sector.
For more information on this subject, read the DPA press release, the DPA decision and the Royal Decree of 24 July 2021 approving the Code of Conduct of the National Chamber of Notaries of 28 January 2021 (publications in French).
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