Privacy policy

Collection and use of personal data

Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (data subject). Above all, a natural person can be identified on the basis of an identifier (name, personal identification code, location data, email address, telephone number, online identifier) or one or more physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social characteristic(s).

To ensure the correct performance of their professional acts, notaries process and collect personal data only in the cases and in accordance with the procedures laid down in the law and other legislation. The processing of personal data by a notary is primarily governed by the Notaries Act and the Notarial Regulations, and notaries also comply with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) and the general rules set out in the Personal Data Protection Act.

When carrying out professional acts, notaries make enquiries to the Population Register and the database of the Police and Border Guard Board, in order to verify the identity of the party to the transaction, the authenticity and validity of their identity document, their marital status and other legal circumstances relevant to the validity of the transaction.

Notaries also make queries in:

• the database of the Registration Department of the court (to check the details entered in the Land Register and the Commercial Register relating to the object of the transaction);
• the Traffic Register (to verify the authenticity or validity of a driving licence presented for the purpose of identity verification, and to check details of vehicles registered in the person’s name and any restrictions imposed on them);
• the Register of Cultural Monuments (to check whether a building, registered property or their part that is the object of a contract forms part of a listed monument, is situated within a heritage conservation area or on an archaeological site);
• the Marital Property Register (to ascertain the property relations of a married party to the notarial act);
• the Register of Construction Works (to check details concerning the rights of the owner of a building or its part and the rights of third parties);
• a list of persons subject to a prohibition on business and enterprise (to check that no such prohibition applies).

Collection of other data

In addition to personal data, notaries also process and collect other data, such as information relating to immovables, companies and vehicles related to a transaction. The data is primarily obtained from public electronic registers and from clients who provide the notary with information relating to a specific professional act.

Privacy policy, data protection and security

The processing of personal data is lawful, fair and transparent. Personal data are collected and processed in a manner that is relevant to the purpose and limited to what is necessary.

Unless the data are to be retained indefinitely, personal data will only be retained for the specified retention period, after which they will be deleted.

The notary is the controller with regard to personal data collected in the course of a notary’s professional activities.

When processing personal data, security measures are implemented to protect them against unauthorised access and accidental loss or destruction.

The notary implements various precautions and security measures (including administrative, technical and physical measures) to protect the personal data of clients, to ensure their security and to prevent unauthorised access, accidental loss or destruction. Only the notary and office staff authorised by the notary have access to process and amend data.

If you believe that your personal data have been processed without justification or unlawfully, please notify the Chamber of Notaries as soon as possible. You may also contact the Chamber of Notaries with any queries regarding data processing.

Rights of natural persons

People have the following rights with regard to all personal data collected by notaries in the course of their professional activities.

Right to access their data

A natural person has the right to obtain confirmation as to whether personal data relating to them are being processed and, if so, the right to request that such data be released. You must submit the relevant request to see the data. When releasing personal data, a notary must be satisfied that the person’s identity has been verified. The request must therefore be signed by hand in the presence of a notary or at a notary’s office, or signed digitally. The data will be released in the manner requested by the individual as soon as possible, but no later than one month from receipt of the request. If it is not possible to release the data within one month, we will inform the requestor of this and extend the deadline for a response by up to two months.

Right to obtain information about the processing of your personal data

You have the right to know the purpose of data collection, to whom your personal data have been or will be disclosed, how long the data will be retained and, if the data have not been collected from you directly, the source of the data.

When may access be restricted?

The right to access your data and to obtain information about the persons to whom we have disclosed your personal data may be restricted if the disclosure of such data or information could prejudice the rights and freedoms of another person.

Right to demand the correction of incorrect data

If you discover that the data held about you are incorrect and do not reflect reality, you have the right to request that the incorrect personal data be corrected or that the data be updated. To do this, you must submit a handwritten or digitally signed request and attach supporting evidence and a description of the circumstances to substantiate your request.

Right to request the restriction and cessation of data processing

If there is no (or no longer any) lawful basis for the processing, disclosure, use for a specific purpose or granting of access to your personal data, you may request that the use of your data be restricted or ceased or the data be erased, or that the disclosure of your data or the provision of access to them be restricted or ceased. For this purpose, you must submit a reasoned request, either signed by hand or digitally.

Right to object

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data. For this purpose, you must submit a reasoned request, either signed by hand or digitally.

Right to file a complaint with the data protection supervisory authority and/or the administrative court

If you find that your rights and freedoms are being infringed in the processing of personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Inspectorate or the administrative court.

Breaches of personal data processing

The Chamber of Notaries documents all breaches relating to personal data, including the circumstances of the breach, its impact and the measures taken. We will notify the supervisory authority (the Data Protection Inspectorate) of the breach without undue delay and, where possible, within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, unless the breach is unlikely to pose a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. The data subject will be informed if there is a high risk to the data subject’s rights and freedoms. The supervisory authority (Data Protection Inspectorate) may consider it unnecessary to inform data subjects.

Re-use of information and personal data

In certain cases, it is possible to re-use public information, i.e. to use them for some other commercial or non-commercial purpose than the original purpose for which they were collected.

Information protected by notarial secrecy may not be re-used. If you find that your rights and freedoms are being infringed in the processing of personal data, you have the right to file a complaint with the Data Protection Inspectorate or the administrative court.

Obtaining information via the state portal’s services

All users of the state portal (eesti.ee) can use the data tracker service to find out when a notary has processed their personal data. As a rule, the name of the notary who processed the personal data is displayed to the user. Even if the data tracking service shows the Chamber of Notaries as the entity making the personal data query, the query is made in connection with a professional act carried out by a notary’s office. If necessary, you may contact the notary or the Chamber of Notaries directly to ascertain the reason for the query.

Using the ‘My notarial documents’ service on the state portal, you can view and download all documents that have been notarised since 23 November 2009 (including contracts, powers of attorney and applications/requests). You can find more detailed information on how to use this service via the link ‘Copies of notarial documents’.

To use the services on the state portal, you must log in to the portal using your ID card or Mobile-ID.

Where personal data have been entered in the Marital Property Register

The Chamber of Notaries is the controller of the Marital Property Register.

The purpose of the Marital Property Register is to provide third parties with information regarding the property relations between spouses and the rights and obligations arising therefrom.

Under the Marital Property Register Act, the following information is entered on the registry card of the Marital Property Register:

1. the registry card number;
2. the first names and surnames of the spouses;
3. the personal identification codes of both spouses (if none, dates of birth);
4. the number of the entry;
5. in the cases provided for by law, the type of the proprietary relationship, the amendment or termination of such a proprietary relationship, as well as items or items belonging to a specific category which have been designated as joint property or separate property under the marital property contract;
6. the application of the law of a foreign country or Estonia to the proprietary rights of the spouses;
7. the basis for the entry, the date on which the entry was made, the name and job title of the person who made the entry, and any notes;
8. other information provided by law.

Anyone may view the data entered on a registry card in the Marital Property Register and obtain printouts of them.

The data on the registry card of the Marital Property Register can be viewed on the website abieluvararegister.rik.ee; identify yourself using your ID card or Mobile-ID to access the data. Accessing the data on the website is free of charge.

The authorised processors of the Marital Property Register are the vital statistics officials who certified the signing of a marriage contract, or who have captured data from the marriage entry on paper in the case of marriages certified by a clergyman, as well as notaries and the Centre of Registers and Information Systems.

Therefore, the employees of the controller, the processor and/or the administrator may gain access to all data entered in the Marital Property Register if the need for this arises from their professional duties.

Pursuant to the Marital Property Register Act, data entered in the Marital Property Register, marital property contracts, court decisions and other documents forming the basis for such entries are stored electronically indefinitely.

Where personal data have been entered in the E-notary information system

The E-notary is an information system belonging to the Chamber of Notaries, which is used by all notaries in Estonia. This is a tool for notaries, designed to assist them in drawing up the documents required for the performance of their professional acts and in carrying out register queries. The E-notary also contains the notary’s digital archive, in which digitally signed copies of notarial instruments are retained, as well as the source documents for the notary’s professional acts, the register of the notary’s professional activities and the deposit register.

A notary is obliged to keep confidential any information that comes to their knowledge in the course of their professional activities. This obligation remains in force even after a notary has left office and extends to the employees of a notary’s office, translators and other persons who have access to said data.

A notary discloses information concerning their professional acts only to those persons on whose behalf or in respect of whom the acts were performed, or to their representatives. At the request of a court, a notary provides information regarding their professional acts performed in connection with criminal, civil or administrative cases pending before the court. Pursuant to a court order, a notary provides information regarding their professional acts to the investigating authorities.

A notary’s duty of confidentiality also extends to data retained in the E-notary system. The Chamber of Notaries and notaries ensure data protection for the E-notary service.

In the E-notary, a notary has access only to the data they have saved themselves. A notary may verify data saved by another notary if a notarial instrument or notation drawn up by that other notary has been submitted to them as the basis for the authentication procedure.

Documents drawn up by a notary or a notary’s locum in the course of their professional acts and retained in accordance with the law belong to the state.

Data processing in remote authentication

Remote authentication is carried out via video call on the self-service portal (iseteenindus.notar.ee), and photos of the participants are taken prior to the start of the remote authentication process to verify their identity.

In addition to the notary, the Centre for Registers and Information Systems (RIK), which manages the e-notary information system, is responsible for processing the data obtained as a result of taking the photos. Consequently, when photos are taken, the notary and the RIK are the recipients of personal data.

The notary may record the remote authentication process and retain the recording. The Chamber of Notaries is the controller in the processing of personal data associated with recording. The purpose of recording is to verify identity, to ensure the reliability of the process and to enable the data to be checked at a later date. The personal data in the recording is retained for 10 years in the E-notary information system of the Chamber of Notaries, which is managed by the RIK.

Further information on remote authentication: https://www.notar.ee/en/professional-acts/remote-authentication/.

Data processing when visiting the website of the Chamber of Notaries

When you visit our website, we collect the following information about you:

• the IP address of the computer or computer network used;
• the version of the web browser and operating system software on your computer;
• the time you visited the website (time, date, year).

IP addresses are not linked to any information that can identify a person and are used solely in an anonymised form. We use these data to compile visitor statistics, which we then use to develop the website and make it more user-friendly.

We retain the data for 6 months from the date of your visit to the website; once this period has elapsed, the data are deleted. In addition to our staff, employees of the Centre of Registers and Information Systems (RIK) may have access to the data, provided they have a direct need arising from the performance of the professional duties relating to the operation and maintenance of our information and communications systems. We may only disclose your data to other individuals or organisations if they have a direct legal right (for example, a court or a pre-trial investigator) and a legitimate need to receive these data.

The following data are retained when the self-service portal of the Chamber of Notaries is used: the user’s name, personal identification code and the time of their last login.

Data Protection Specialist at the Chamber of Notaries

Further information on the processing of personal data can be obtained from Kaitti Persidski, the Data Protection Specialist at the Chamber of Notaries.
Email: kaitti.persidski@notaritekoda.ee
Telephone: +372 617 7900