erakasutuses

Erakasutuses is an Estonian term formed from era- meaning private and kasutus meaning usage. The form erakasutuses is the inessive (locative) case, conveying the meaning “in private use.” It is used in Estonian to describe the status or mode of use of an object, resource, data set, or service as belonging to private rather than public or shared use.

In practice, erakasutuses appears in administrative, legal, and technical texts to delineate the scope of use. For example, a license, document, or dataset might be labeled erakasutuses, indicating it is intended for private use by specific individuals or organizations and not for general distribution or public access. The opposite concept is ühiskasutuses, meaning “in public/shared use.”

Contextual examples include notes that a facility is kept erakasutuses or software labeled for erakasutuses only, implying private, internal deployment rather than public availability. In data governance or information security, resources described as erakasutuses signal access controls restricting use to authorized private parties.

Etymologically, erakasutus reflects the broader Estonian usage system that contrasts private (era-) and public or shared use. The form erakasutuses is common in sentences describing the current use or state of a resource. Related terms include ühiskasutuses.