THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY VS. PRINCIPLE OF PUBLICITY OF LAND REGISTER

Abstract

Data from the land registers should and must be available for specific purposes, but not for all purposes. Although it seems paradoxical, a right of access to information in the land records designed to empower and protect individuals can lead to the opposite result. The solution is not to eliminate access to land registers but to regulate the use of information within them. What is public can be private, not in the sense that it is secret, but in the sense that the use and disclosure of information can be limited or conditioned. The research concludes that the principle of publicity does not necessarily require unhindered public access to information about the land, and recommends measures to reform the law that would improve privacy protection, while at the same time enabling the fulfilment of the principle of publicity. Therefore, greater control of access to information is proposed by requiring the existence of a legitimate interest for such access, as well as notification and the consent of the holder of land registry rights regarding access to their information, except when this would interfere with the exercise of the powers of certain competent authorities.