Riigikogu committee vice-chair wary of proposed surveillance law amendments

The vice-chair of the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee has taken a more skeptical view of amendments to legislation governing surveillance and other aspects of law enforcement than has the chair of the same committee.
The draft amendments concern the Law Enforcement Act as drafted by the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior, and propose several ways to increase the powers and capabilities of the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) and capabilities.
Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee Chair Andre Hanimägi (SDE) has said many of the proposed amendments are largely justified, while vice-chair Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart (Center) sees them as a one step towards a surveillance society.
Hanimägi told ERR on Tuesday: "Personally, I think many aspects of the Law Enforcement Act need to be amended. Clearly there are areas which are not adequately addressed in the current legislation. This makes the amendments and their discussion appropriate."
"We have seen over the past few years that various situations unfortunately can and do arise, and it is rational for parliament to be prepared for these situations and to have discussed the issues," Hanimägi went on, referring to the rationale behind updating the law.
"We cannot solely base our decisions on the assumption that we do not believe such a need will ever arise or that such a situation has never occurred before," he noted.
Kovalenko-Kõlvart also stressed the need for public discussions and reiterated the importance of protecting fundamental rights, telling ERR: "Usually, these situations have the opposite effect to that desired, whereby, on the one hand, there is the intention to tell the public that we are protecting them more by monitoring and penalizing, but on the other, it is not grasped that more and more various rights and freedoms are being taken away from the people."
"Unfortunately, if we look at all the laws that have been coming in, we can honestly say that we are increasingly moving towards a surveillance society, a punitive state," she went on.
"The way fines have been doubled, the Tax Board wants to monitor bank accounts, new speed cameras are to be installed, average speed monitoring is desired – such initiatives have come up, but no one talks about how people's fundamental rights are protected in the process," Kovalenko-Kõlvart added.
"We find ourselves today in a situation where people are being monitored, filmed, photographed, but they have no information about when this is happening, while later there is no information about how long this data is stored or where it might be forwarded to."
The committee vice-chair gave as an example speed cameras.
In many other countries, she said, the images of road users not infringing the speed limit are blurred out, but this is not the case in Estonia.
A Ministry of Climate plan to start measuring average speeds also raises concerns about data privacy and the preponderance of cameras, she added.
Hanimägi acknowledged that a key line with regard to the amendments will be how the public's rights and freedoms are protected in relation to the needs highlighted by the Ministry of the Interior on law enforcement capabilities and requirements for surveillance, threat prevention, and managing public demonstrations.
"But more precisely, where is the dividing line, and does society feel that these needs are justified? We will probably be wiser come the fall. This means these debates will certainly be quite intense," Hanimägi forecast.

Hanimägi enumerated drones and surveillance using drones, the law is out of date, and the situation with demonstrations – which can lead to controversy if prohibited, for instance – as potential areas for amendments to the Law Enforcement Act.
He also listed police bodycams and the use of non-lethal weapons such as tasers and rubber bullets.
Kovalenko-Kõlvart said with reference to some of this newer tech that the definition of "danger" and the actions permitted to law enforcement based on that definition are insufficiently outlined in Law Enforcement Act as it stands.
Kovalenko-Kõlvart also contrasted Western European society with what could be deemed a "Chinese" society, which, she said, was one where "this data is readily available, too readily available."
"I believe this is not what our people expect, not what Western society expects, as people's fundamental rights must be protected, which is also what our constitution states," the Center Party MP went on.
Hanimägi said it is rational to discuss these topics preemptively rather than awaiting real-life situations before addressing them.

Both the chair and vice-chair agreed at least that presenting the draft intention is only the first step in amending the Law Enforcement Act. Lengthy discussions will precede any amendments being enacted.
The committee aims to hold the first discussion in September, after receiving feedback from stakeholders, Hanimägi said, adding
the balance between individuals' rights and freedoms and the state's security needs will be one of the main themes.
"I think that once these drafts evolve into bills, it will be clear that in certain respects, this is about pushing boundaries in areas where we haven't made such changes before. I imagine there will be a very large discussion about democratic rights versus security, public health, and order. I think it will be a very complex discussion," Hanimägi concluded.
Kovalenko-Kõlvart meanwhile placed significant hope in the Minister of Justice, currently Madis Timpson (Reform), whose department will ultimately have to draft the amendment bill: "The question is how willing the Ministry of Justice is to set clear boundaries and ensure the protection of people's fundamental rights," she said.
The key aspects of data processing that need to be clarified in the Law Enforcement Act amendments are: The grounds or purpose for data collection; the scope of that data collection; the usage of said data and its retention periods; and how the public will be informed that they are being filmed or photographed, Kovalenko-Kõlvart added.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Mait Ots, Andrew Whyte