Identifitseeritav

Identifitseeritav is an Estonian adjective meaning capable of being identified; in English, identifiable. It is used to describe persons, objects, data, or information that can be linked to a specific identity or attributed to a particular source. The term is formed from the verb identifitseerida ("to identify") with the common Estonian adjectival suffix that marks capability. The resulting adjective can be used both attributively and predicatively: See on identifitseeritav objekt (This is an identifiable object).

In practical use, identifitseeritav appears across domains such as data protection, information technology, and forensics, where determining whether something can be linked to an individual matters for privacy, security, and compliance. In privacy discourse and GDPR-related language, a data item may be described as identifitseeritav if it could reasonably be used to identify a person when combined with other information. The distinction between identifitseeritav data and anonymized data is a common point of discussion in policy and technical standards.

Related terms include identifitseerimine (identification) and identifitseeriv (identifying), as well as synonyms such as tuvastatav (detectable) or eristatavam (distinguishable), which carry related but not identical nuances. Etymologically, identifitseeritav reflects Estonian morphology: a verb-root forming the base of an adjective with a suffix that expresses capability, illustrating how action-based roots give rise to descriptive terms in Estonian.

See also: privacy law, data minimization, data anonymization.