The Notarial Chamber of Ukraine (NPU, not to be confused with the National Police) was the headliner of the day. In case anyone missed the news, this morning this body appealed to the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and the Minister of Justice Herman Galushchenko to stand up for notarial secrecy and promptly stop testing the e-notary system.
The Notarial Chamber of Ukraine (NPU, not to be confused with the National Police) was the headliner of the day. In case anyone missed the news, this morning this body appealed to the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and the Minister of Justice Herman Galushchenko to stand up for notarial secrecy and promptly stop testing the e-notary system.
The NPU stated that in the test version of e-notary, testers allegedly saw real (not test) records from the Unified Register of Powers of Attorney and the Inheritance Register.
As the letter states, the test environment «contained or provided access» to such data, which contains notarial secrecy.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs reacted a little later. The agency called the report about the data leak a fake and assured that the data of Ukrainians is safe.
As the Ministry of Digital Affairs said, testing is taking place in a separate, isolated environment, without connection to real registers. And access, as the department says, was only available to notaries who are obliged to observe notarial secrecy. We are talking about about 2,000 notaries who tested the new system from September 3 to 16.
The Ministry of Justice also responded. They emphasized that «access to the e-notary system is available only to current authorized notaries who work with registers in their daily activities» and reminded that «the obligation to maintain notarial secrecy applies to notaries regardless of whether it is an industrial or test environment.»
The Ministry of Justice did not explain whether other individuals signed the obligation not to disclose relevant information.
The question arises, did developers, donors, organizers, and technical staff have access to the test system? Everything is clear about the responsibility of notaries. But what responsibility can these people have?
Because someone had to somehow upload the same data (even test data) to this system, test the system for load, and administer it? Notaries couldn’t do that either (although who knows).
Article 8 of the relevant law clearly defines notarial secrecy as a set of information about a person, his property, rights and obligations obtained during notarial actions.
The obligation to keep it applies to notaries, assistants, witnesses, and persons who learned about it in connection with their service. If they suddenly violate something, they bear disciplinary, administrative, civil, or criminal liability.
However, the same law does not contain specific sanctions for leaks in digital systems. For example, if the leak occurred during a test of a state platform, liability can be avoided by attributing it to technical errors, for example.
So what is the conclusion? It is simple. First, clear and modern legislation, then, transferring analog processes to a digital reality. Otherwise, such incidents may arise.
