The legal affairs committee of the Estonian parliament supported on Monday a bill seeking to limit searches in the land register and sent the bill to the plenary sitting for its first reading.
During the committee sitting, it was highlighted that major media outlets would be granted the right to search data from the e-land register by an individual’s name and personal identification code under a contract. For one-time data access, a separate permission could be requested without entering into a permanent contract. Property owners would still be able to see who accessed their information.
Andre Hanimägi, chairman of the legal affairs committee, said that it is currently possible to find a person’s home address by knowing their name or personal identification code.
“This option has been misused to maliciously search for the home addresses of individuals like police officers, prosecutors, or judges. Unjustified mass searches have also been conducted. To increase privacy protection while maintaining the transparency of the land register, only those with a professional need, such as lawyers, notaries, and journalists, will be allowed to make searches based on a name or personal identification code,” Hanimägi said. “Users will still be able to make searches by address or cadastral reference to contact the property owner if needed.”
Deputy chair of the committee Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart expressed concern that the draft law contains too broad a list of people who can conduct searches by name and personal identification code.
“The current list is open-ended, and justifying a legitimate interest will be required for each request, which could lead to a significant administrative burden. Instead, the list of public sector employees allowed to make such searches should be more narrowly defined. Otherwise, there is a risk of abuse, as determining the legitimacy of each request will be challenging,” Kovalenko-Kõlvart said.
The committee sent the government’s proposed amendments to the Land Register Act to the Riigikogu plenary sitting for first reading on Sept. 25.
Source: BNS
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