Data Governance & Sharing

Data Privacy and Security

Draft for consultation: this follows the draft NFMS/FIP Data Sharing Protocol and Governance Structure, which take effect when approved by the Principal Secretary, State Department for Forestry.

Data privacy and ownership

• All data sharing and processing under the Protocol complies with the Data Protection Act, 2019 and the requirements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
• Personal or sensitive information is processed only where this is lawful, necessary and proportionate to NFMS/FIP operational and reporting objectives.
• Data ownership stays with the originating institution unless legislation or a supplementary agreement provides otherwise.
• KFS is the custodian of the datasets hosted on the NFMS/FIP and does not take ownership of contributed data.
• KFS, as platform custodian, approves user registration, assigns and reviews access, revokes it where necessary and keeps audit records of access and system activity.
• Users must acknowledge the originating institution in publications, reports and maps, and respect any licensing, access restrictions or conditions set by the data owner.

Security safeguards

KFS, as platform custodian, maintains technical and administrative safeguards in line with national cybersecurity policy and recognised information security standards:

• Role-based access control and secure sign-in
• Regular backups and disaster recovery arrangements
• Periodic security audits
• Documented procedures to identify, report, investigate and manage security incidents
• Audit records of user access and system activity

Participating institutions must promptly report any suspected breach, unauthorised access, data corruption or system failure. KFS coordinates corrective and recovery measures.