Anonymous access to the cadastre will still be possible; the test is intended to limit speculation

Prague - Anonymous access to the property register via the internet will be maintained, even though starting in June, only registered users were supposed to have access to the name of the property owner or participants in the proceedings. A test will help prevent software robots used by land and property speculators, announced Vojtěch Bílý, spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture to ČTK.

The Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (ČÚZK) justified its original decision to restrict access to the cadastre due to an extreme increase in the number of accesses, largely driven by illegal data mining from the database. At the same time, it wanted to increase the protection of privacy and personal data recorded in the cadastre. However, many individuals, associations, and firms criticized such measures as illegal and demanded that the cadastre remain accessible without complicated registration.

"I understand that data from the cadastre must be available to contact the owner for buyout, for example, when preparing a construction project, but there are limits to this. Therefore, we have agreed with the chairman of the cadastral office on a process that will preserve the opportunity for anonymous access to the cadastre while at the same time preventing the misuse of this data by various land speculators," announced the Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Toman (ANO) today.

To limit robotic queries, the so-called Turing test, known by the acronym CAPTCHA, will be reintroduced. Users who do not find this test suitable can use electronic identity login, the ministry added.

Originally, the cadastral office planned that starting in June, complete data in the internet application for viewing the property register would only be available to users logged in via the Portal of the National Point for Identification and Authentication, known as eIdentita, or using an account for remote access to the property register. Unregistered users were to see only basic information about properties and proceedings.

For example, in May, anonymous users accessed 92 million outputs with data about owners or participants in registration proceedings, which is nearly a threefold increase compared to the usual level in previous years. A significant portion of these anonymous queries, according to the ministry, is generated by so-called software robots, as even at night, 100,000 queries come in per hour. However, the planned measure has sparked disapproval from those who did not want to use electronic identity.

The chairman of ČÚZK, Karel Večeře, noted that the property cadastre is public, but providing information about owners must respect basic rules of privacy protection. "We must combat data mining by robots and also address the subsequent trading of this data. The technical measures adopted will be continuously evaluated in cooperation with the Office for Personal Data Protection and cyber security experts and adjusted to maintain access without login," he emphasized.

The preservation of the option for anonymous access to the property register was welcomed by the citizens' initiative Open Cadastre, which has been joined by around 15,000 citizens, 240 associations of unit owners (SVJ) and housing cooperatives, and 230 companies and professionals. "I am pleased that the citizens' initiative is capable of influencing the steps of authorities. The voice of citizens is heard, and that is good news for Czech democracy," stated the founder of the initiative, lawyer Petr Novotný.