Committee therefore interprets free birth registration to also entail accessibility and availability of the birth registration services for users. If transport fees to and from the civil registration office are prohibitive, the abolition of the registration fee will have a very little impact on the efficiency of the system. Since birth registration rates are inevitably lower in rural areas, it is imperative to decentralise birth registration services and provide for mobile registration facilities in remote areas. 74. States parties must additionally devise appropriate alternative mechanisms to ensure that their birth registration systems reach out to the remotest areas of their respective territories. They should envisage using mobile registration or mobile phone registration systems where mobile phone networks cover most of, if not all, the territory and where their use is reasonably extensive amongst the general population. Another alternative mechanism would consist in using existing networks, for instance health workers should be trained to obtain the declaration of birth from parents and transmit this information to the registration centres. This channel could be used for the delivery of the birth certificate. Mobile registration systems can also use local community leaders to collect birth registration data, to mobilize families with non-registered children, as well as for the delivery of birth certificates. 75. The Committee notes that States parties that have set up a birth registration system that uses modern interconnectivity with hospitals, clinics, dispensaries (where necessary), other social services such as education, health, personal identification and electoral services, as well as with their national bureaus of statistics, have achieved better results regarding birth registration than those which have not. Where digital interconnectivity is not yet available, the Committee encourages national civil registration systems to establish collaboration with hospitals, clinics and dispensaries as well as national statistics offices to ensure prompt exchange of information and maximize chances to retrieve lost or misplaced data. 76. States parties must put in place a legal framework for protection of sensitive personal data that includes birth registration details and other vital statistical data. Protection of sensitive personal data, both where it is computerized or manually held, raises an additional obligation to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability 27