A government proposal for an amendment to the law on data protection in electronic communications has come under severe criticism in the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The Centre Party newspaper Suomenmaa reports that NBI deputy director Tero Kurenmaa has said that the bill, also referred to as Lex Nokia, would confuse the roles of state officials and private companies and citizens.
The bill is to come before Parliament later in the month. If it is passed, companies suspecting information leaks to competitors would be allowed to dig up information on who the employee has corresponded with through the company’s e-mail.
Kurenmaa says that the bill would give companies more extensive surveillance rights than the police have. He also says that the proposal contains problems in both its details and in issues of general principle.
He feels that one part of the proposal is particularly questionable - that the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) and the Data Protection Ombudsman would be allowed to pass on e-mail information to foreign investigators, but not to Finnish police.
As a matter of principle, he questions the rationale that the Finnish police would not be appropriate investigators because of a shortage of resources. Instead of changing legislation, Kurenmaa suggests providing more resources for telecommunications surveillance by Finnish police.
Kurenmaa emphasised that he was speaking only for the NBI, and that he does not know what the thinking is at the Ministry of the Interior, for instance.
The bill has also been criticised by a number of Finnish legal experts. Helsingin Sanomat reported in early February that the officials who prepared the legislation had felt that Nokia had put pressure on those who drew up the bill. According to an anonymous source in the civil service, Nokia had threatened that it might leave Finland if the bill is not passed.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) responded by saying that the government has no knowledge of any pressure.
