Technical audit · 2026-04-13

epa.ee

Estonian Patent Office

A state body protecting citizens' and businesses' intellectual property. Trackers on the site work reliably — Matomo, Cloudflare, browser-update.org. Meanwhile the site has no cookie policy at all: in its place, a single line linking to another agency.

Timeline of the leak

+230 ms · before consent
Matomo (statistika.rik.ee) — analytics on an Estonian domain (a plus), but loads before consent. In parallel, Cloudflare Insights and browser-update.org initiate requests on every page.
Policy / banner
There is no cookie policy — only a line linking to the Ministry of Justice's website. There is no way to find out what epa.ee itself collects.
Per session
unpkg.com — 4 requests on the contacts page (status 200, USA). cdnjs.cloudflare.com — 8 requests (Bootstrap, mapping libraries, USA).

Declared versus actual

+ Matomo — statistika.rik.ee, before consent — не заявлен
+ Cloudflare Insights, browser-update.org — the same signature seen at aki.ee — не заявлен
+ unpkg.com, cdnjs.cloudflare.com — CDNs in the USA — не заявлен

Transfer timings

+230 ms statistika.rik.ee (Matomo)

Analytics on the Estonian RIK domain, but before consent

No exact timing

on every page static.cloudflareinsights.comBlocked by the browser, but the request was initiated. IP address to Cloudflare (USA)
on every page browser-update.orgA third-party American service. The request went out
per session cdnjs.cloudflare.com8 requests, Bootstrap and libraries. Data to the USA

Detected trackers

Indicators of GDPR non-compliance

Context

Patendiamet is Estonia’s Patent Office. A state body: it registers patents, trademarks, and industrial designs, and is legally responsible for protecting citizens’ and businesses’ intellectual property. HAR: 145 requests per session, 6 pages.

Familiar traces

On every page load, the following fire: Matomo (statistika.rik.ee, +230 ms) — analytics on an Estonian domain, itself a plus, but loading before consent remains a violation; Cloudflare Insights and browser-update.org — an attempt on every page, blocked by the browser in response, but the request had already been initiated and the user’s IP address reached servers in the USA; unpkg.com (4 requests on the contacts page) and cdnjs.cloudflare.com (8 requests) — CDNs in the USA. All of this before any interaction with the site.

Not the first time

Two services — Cloudflare Insights and browser-update.org — were previously recorded on AKI’s site, Estonia’s Data Protection Inspectorate. The same domains, the same timings, the same signature. This isn’t a coincidence, but a pattern: likely a single CMS, a single contractor, or a single template replicated across Estonian government sites with no GDPR compliance check.

No policy at all

epa.ee has no cookie or tracker policy. In its place is a single line linking to the Ministry of Justice’s website. Users cannot find out what data this site collects, who the processor is, on what basis, or where it is transmitted. Meanwhile, the trackers work reliably. For comparison: koda.ee at least had a policy — it just hadn’t been updated in 8 years, which is itself a violation. epa.ee has no site-specific policy whatsoever — a different level altogether.

Conclusion

A body that is legally responsible for protecting intellectual property and registering rights runs trackers on its own site with no consent, and publishes no information about what is transmitted where. The absence of a policy doesn’t make the processing more transparent — it makes it invisible. The same template, with the same trackers, is spreading across government sites, and as long as no one checks them for compliance, it will keep spreading.

Evidence
Original (audit)
HAR file: ee/epa-ee-2026-04-13.har
SHA-256: a3a01fbb95eb6b33d799f3e35fd5dd7ba67d94a54545f945b3a797e165b03f40
Re-check snapshot
Awaiting changes
HAR files are stored on EU infrastructure (Proton Drive). SHA-256 is published for integrity verification.
IMPORTANT: before filing a complaint with the regulator, first contact the company directly and give it 30 days to respond. Without this step the regulator may reject the complaint. Details and a template letter to the company are in the Methodology.
Ready-to-send complaint letter

Where to file: Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (AKI) — write to info@aki.ee

Important: AKI only handles submissions in Estonian. Translate the letter before sending.

To: Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (AKI)
From: [Your name], [contact email]

1. Subject of the complaint
I am filing a complaint regarding the processing of my personal data by the website epa.ee.

2. Circumstances
I visited the website epa.ee and found indications that the processing of my personal data does not comply with the GDPR. The technical analysis published on gdpru.eu on 13 April 2026 (open methodology, reproducible measurements) documents the following indications:

1) Matomo (+230 ms), Cloudflare Insights, browser-update.org, unpkg.com, and cdnjs.cloudflare.com fire before any consent — some are blocked by the browser, but the requests have already been initiated.

2) The site has no cookie or tracker policy. In its place is a single line linking to the Ministry of Justice's website. Users cannot find out what data is collected, who the processor is, or on what basis.

3) The actual recipients (Matomo, Cloudflare Insights, browser-update.org, unpkg, cdnjs) are undeclared — there's nowhere to declare them, as no policy exists.

4) Data transfer to the USA (Cloudflare, browser-update.org, unpkg) with no legal mechanism stated.

Full technical documentation is published at: https://gdpru.eu/en/audits/ee-epa-ee/

3. Provisions violated
GDPR Art. 6(1), Art. 5(1)(a); GDPR Art. 12, Art. 13; GDPR Art. 13(1)(e); GDPR Art. 13(1)(f), Chapter V

4. Request
I request that you investigate the violations described and apply the measures provided for in Article 58(2) GDPR.

5. Attachments
The full evidence base — the HAR file, its SHA-256 checksum and the quotation from the site's privacy policy documenting the stated contradiction — is published and verifiable at the link in point 2 above.

[Date]                                    [Signature / name]