Building Permits

Revision of the criteria for Building Permits

The National Statistics Institute (INE) constantly reviews its products to safeguard statistical secrecy to ensure that respondents’ identities are indeterminate, indeterminable, and anonymous. These criteria are essential for the proper safekeeping of statistical information and of the rights of persons associated with the data. The publication and delivery of information on building permits have been analyzed to determine whether its economic database and cartographic information meet these criteria.

It has been determined that with the variable “permit number”, which is present in the economic database and cartographic information, and the variable “final reception certificate number”, which can be found in the cartographic information, respondents can be identified if the data are linked and integrated with information made publicly available by municipalities.

Therefore, as of 30 December 2020, these variables will be eliminated in all databases and geographic information platforms available on the institutional website because their publication does not fall within the scope of INE's legal competencies. In this regard, indeterminacy is a condition that must be constantly reviewed while considering, among other factors, the information available from other institutions or related agents, the existing technology for linking data, and the constant process of continuous improvement of INE’s dissemination procedures.

The deletion of this data is among the processes that INE performs to fulfill its function. In particular, INE, fiscal and semi-fiscal agencies, and State enterprises, as well as their respective officials, may not disclose facts that refer to specific persons or entities of which they have become aware in the course of their activities.

Specifically, Article 29 of Law No. 17.374 refers to this situation, and it penalizes the infringement of statistical secrecy according to the provisions of Article 247 of the Penal Code.