Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) checked around 2,000 bank statements without legal authority, Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise announced, ERR reports. FIU had obtained full bank statements via the data exchange layer connected to the enforcement register, whereas the law only allows FIU access to basic information about bank accounts. FIU told ERR that it had suspended such inquiries. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice will conduct an audit of such data requests by state officials, ERR relayed. Three committees of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, will hold a joint meeting to discuss the scandal, ERR reported.
Relatedly, Madise suggested to ERR that a law to create a so-called super-database as proposed by FIU may be unconstitutional. She stressed that personal data should be kept decentralised for privacy and data security purposes. If enacted, the law would have to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, she said. Madise warned against building a “preventive society,” in which people were under total surveillance like in China. She pointed to the possible misuse of traffic camera data, for instance. Estonia’s leading newspapers, Eesti Päevaleht and Postimees, also criticised the creeping state surveillance, ERR reported.