Vanhanen denies knowledge of Nokia threat over privacy legislation

Nokia denies warning it would leave if new privacy legislation fails to pass

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) has not heard that Nokia would ever have threatened to leave Finland if Parliament does not pass draft legislation on data privacy.
      Helsingin Sanomat wrote an article in its Sunday edition on background work behind a proposed law which has been dubbed Lex Nokia.
      The proposed law, aimed at preventing corporate espionage, would allow employers to monitor employees’ use of company e-mail traffic; while the content of employees’ messages would remain confidential, the employer would be allowed to see who the employee has corresponded with through the company’s e-mail system, and what kind of attachment material is linked with each message.
      According to the article in Helsingin Sanomat, Nokia had hinted at the possibility that it might leave Finland if it is not given the right to monitor employee e-mail traffic.
     
Many legal scholars have systematically opposed giving employers any greater access to employee e-mail information, saying that this would violate the constitutional right to privacy.
      Vanhanen insists that the bill has been carefully scrutinised.
      “The Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee is by far the highest authority, and the only authority to examine the constitutional aspect”, Vanhanen said in a radio interview programme on the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Sunday.
     
Nokia’s head of communications Arja Suominen denied that Nokia had made any threats of leaving the country if the bill is not passed. In a statement issued to the Finnish News Agency (STT), Suominen described the claim as “rather unsettling”.
      Minister of Communications Suvi Lindén (Nat. Coalition Party) told YLE on Sunday that Nokia had made no such threats, and Constitutional Law Committee Chairman Kimmo Sasi (Nat. Coalition Party) insisted that Nokia had not put any pressure on him.
      “No one in Nokia has been in contact with me in this Lex Nokia matter in any way, or tried to wield influence”, Sasi insisted.
     
     
An English version of the article from Sunday's newspaper that triggered the denials will be included among our weeklies tomorrow, Tuesday.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Opponents of Lex Nokia to launch TV advertising campaign on MTV3 (29.1.2009)
  ”Lex Nokia” gets blessing from Constitutional Law Committee (14.11.2008)
  Legal experts say “Lex Nokia” violates constitution (20.11.2008)
  Nokia snooped on employee e-mail communications in 2005 (9.6.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat