The expert called the lack of standards the reason for the slowdown in the digitalization of cemeteries

There is no comprehensive legal regulation of cemetery digitalization in Russia, which creates significant legal risks and hinders the development of such projects. The current legislation does not contain direct regulations on the digitization of graves and actually reduces it to an inventory regulated by disparate regional and municipal acts. Sergey Martunovich, a lawyer at Zartsyn & Partners, told Izvestia about this on December 26.

According to him, the lack of unified federal standards and data formats leads to the formation of incompatible local databases. At the same time, he calls the legislation on personal data a key barrier to systemic digitalization.

"The main legal problem is the lack of a legitimate basis for processing personal data," said Martunovich, explaining that information about the date and place of burial refers to the personal data of the deceased, and it is impossible to obtain their consent, while the legal status of the consent of the heirs is not legally defined.

Additional restrictions, as the expert pointed out, are related to the lack of special procedures in the law on burial and funeral business, as well as the requirements of legislation on the protection of cultural heritage sites in cases where the cemetery has the appropriate status.

Some difficulties arise when working with old graves, where relatives may be unavailable or there is no agreement between them, since current law does not offer mechanisms for resolving such conflicts.

Digitalization of old graves is actually in the zone of constant legal risk.

"The digitalization of old graves is based on a systemic conflict between the public interest in preserving historical memory and strict personal data protection standards that are not adapted for such tasks," Martunovich concluded.

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