The Ministry of Justice has developed a preliminary draft for access to electronic land and mortgage

The Ministry of Justice has developed a preliminary draft for access to electronic land and mortgage registers

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office received a response from the Ministry of Justice regarding the progress of work on a draft amendment that would allow for moving away from the model of anonymous and universal access to personal data contained in electronic land and mortgage registers.

The ministry's response is related to a letter sent by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office to the Minister of Justice in June in connection with announcements concerning legislative work on increasing the level of protection of personal data contained in electronic land and mortgage registers, as reported in the  communication of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office: https://uodo.gov.pl/pl/138/3752 (in Polish).

As announced by the Secretary of State Arkadiusz Myrcha, a preliminary draft act amending the Act on land and mortgage registers has been prepared, which in the long term will enable the amendment of the Regulation of the Minister of Justice of November 27, 2013, on the Central Land and Mortgage Register Information Retrieval Office (Journal of Laws of 2024, item 1401). In the near future, the Minister of Justice will submit a request to include this act in the list of legislative and programme work of the Council of Ministers, and the draft will be submitted for inter-ministerial consultation, public consultation, and review.

The announced change is intended to increase the level of protection of personal data contained in land and mortgage registers. Moving away from the model of anonymous and universal access to these data may, among other things, limit the possibility of using so-called robots that perform automatic search and data retrieval operations from electronic land and mortgage registers. In the context of the GDPR, the proposed amendment will make it easier for the controller to fulfill the obligations set out in Article 24(1) of the GDPR (implementation of appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of processing), also in the context of the accountability principle under Article 5(2) of the GDPR.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office will continue to monitor the work undertaken by the Ministry of Justice, which is intended to improve access rules and strengthen control over data processed in electronic land and mortgage registers.