Fictitiously protected personal data in Land Registers

In Poland you can't check a land register number through Geoportal, because it's... personal data. So ruled the Supreme Administrative Court. According to this interpretation, the land register (KW) number itself, that is, a string of characters in the format XXXX/XXXXXXXX/X, is already protected information. But if you really want to – go ahead – all you have to do is pay 100 zł to a company registered in the United States and you have access to 50 such numbers. Legally? In the USA, yes. In Poland – no.

Sounds absurd? That's just the beginning.

The aforementioned American company boasts access to over 24.9 million registers. How is this possible? It uses data from our own, Polish system of Electronic Land Registers (EKW). This data is, after all, public – but to search it in Poland, you have to know the exact KW number. And without it you're blocked. Meanwhile, all the foreign service needs is a first and last name – and voilà, you have access to information such as the home address, PESEL number, the flat's floor area, its history of encumbrances, and in some cases even data about family members.

From a citizen's point of view this is shocking. From the point of view of a former head of the Intelligence Agency – it's already a real threat to state security. Because all you need is to know the name of a security officer or a prosecutor to instantly establish their place of residence. Or whether the flat has a mortgage. Or whether they bought something together with a partner. Or whether they have children.

In Poland, meanwhile, for reasons of supposed privacy protection, we can't even see which plot is assigned to our own flat. Geoportal doesn't show KW numbers, and an attempt to reveal them can end in a charge of violating personal data protection regulations – as confirmed, among others, by the Supreme Administrative Court ruling of 28 November 2023 (ref. III OSK 2769/21) on data protection. It's grotesque. Because the paradox is that the KW number isn't secret in any way – it can easily be calculated using the appropriate checksum algorithm. It's like with the PESEL number – it has a defined structure and certain dependencies that can be analysed.

On top of this comes the fact that from one land register you can often read off other related numbers – for example the plot the building stands on, or the KW of the neighbouring premises. Thanks to this, having one number, you're able to find dozens more. And importantly – in each of these registers there's data that in Poland is considered personal. That is, data that theoretically must not be disclosed.

There are also other routes. You can go to the geodesy department and submit a formal application for access to the KW number – of course you have to justify what you need this data for. Sometimes it works, sometimes you have to fight for it. But sooner or later you'll get it. Legally, though with obstacles.

To sum up:

• In Poland legally – you can't, because of personal data protection.

• In the USA legally – you can, because the data is public.

• In practice – anyone who knows how can obtain a KW number and the full data of a property owner.

Only here we pretend everything is fine. We create a fiction that the data is safe, that everything works as it should. Meanwhile the data is available online, for sale for a few dozen złoty, without any verification, without any control. And not just by an ordinary citizen, but also by criminals, stalkers or even foreign services.

From the point of view of personal data protection it's a bizarre situation. And from the point of view of state security – simply dangerous. Maybe it's high time to end the fiction? Either we protect data for real, or we stop pretending that we do. Because the current situation isn't protection, but a farce involving legal systems that can't keep up with reality.

And let's think what would happen if elections were electronic.