Over 4,000 Finns under privacy protection orders

Over 4,000 Finns feel their lives and those of their families are so threatened that they have applied for and received a privacy protection status. The privacy protection status means that only a few government officials will have access to protected individuals' records in the Population Information System.
      Privacy protection has been granted, for example, to police officers and other government officials, to certain health care professionals, and to women harassed by their former husbands.
      Under normal circumstances, Finland is a very "open" society: anybody can collect a considerable amount of information from various sources about, for instance, their neighbours, although this may take some effort and may cost a couple of euros.
      The Finnish Tax Administration, for one, has public records of anyone's earned income and capital income, whereas at the Building Regulation Department one can examine the floor plan of anybody's home.
      Local register offices, which maintain the regional Population Information System, can reveal to you the content of someone's pre-nuptual contract, while at the Helsinki Exchanges one can examine anyone's stock portfolio in detail.
     
District courthouses  also keep public records of various sorts.
      Privacy protection orders are not permanent: they last for an initial five years, and are thereafter renewed at two-year intervals.  


Links:
  Population Register Centre
  Finnish Tax Administration
  Local register offices
  Helsinki Stock Exchange