“A credit bureau may sell a person’s contact information to an advertiser purchasing a list of people with similar characteristics, like homeowners with excellent credit.”

So, no disclosing the information to third parties, now?

Oh yes, your propeller swooped over this quite carelessly, so let’s look at it in detail:

“Next is a listing of the persons personal credit information including credit account numbers, the creditors name, the amount of last payment, the credit limit of the account and the timeliness of monthly payments.”

Personally I regard this information far more personal and more relevant from a business perspective than what I made two years ago.

For someone access your credit report, they must first get your written consent

Which you are essentially forced to give every time you buy something. Of course, it’s all “voluntary”.

I’m sure drugs wouldn’t be necessary to erase that memory But if the landlord you mentioned discloses your information to another person without your consent—or posts your information on the Internet—then you can sue for damages.

Let’s clarify what is on your credit report:

name
address
social security number (like KELA number)
date of birth
creditors
payment information, timeliness
tax liens (if you didn’t pay your taxes)
civil judgments
bankruptcies

For someone access your credit report, they must first get your written consent. And there is NO information on the report about your employment income, investment income or values of investments.

(Come to think of it, credit-check is often, if not usually, done before transaction. Yet, in the case the transaction is declined, I can’t see how the law would be able to restrict the use of the gained knowledge in rentee’s financial status – maybe until there are drugs to erase a particular part of memory?)

Speaking of EU’s data protection and security checks, UK’s National Health Service (NHS) lately found out that some of its old hard-drives were on eBay, which happens from time to time. The only issue was that all the patient history and info were still on them. The hard-drives WERE supposed to be securely wiped clean before resale, by law. However, one single missing step, the info is leaked. Unlike your address or salary info, one can’t change one’s medical history. Unless, one never gets sick.

Does Sirkuspelle campaign against the far worse infringement of privacy in the US?

Not with a credit card. But if you request credit directly from the soda vendor, then the credit application form will most likely grant the vendor access to your credit information.

“It seems that the breach on privacy is several orders of magnitude worse in the Land of Freedom.”

Interestingly, the European Union has much better Data Protection laws than the US. We just want to make sure that Finland abides by those laws.

Oh? You’ve researched this? Apparently not. You forgot to mention that to get someone’s credit report in the US, you need their signature on paper. Not just “valid reasons” as you state. Here is the law:

Who can access my credit report under FCRA guidelines?

Section 604 of the FCRA (Permissible Purposes) sets forth the purposes that permit a business or other person to gain access to your credit file. Equifax discloses a credit file only to a person who has a permissible purpose to receive that credit file. The permissible purposes include:

* A court order, or Federal grand jury subpoena.
* In accordance with written instructions from a consumer to whom the file relates.
* As part of a credit transaction involving the consumer.
* To review and collect the consumer’s account.
* For employment purposes (only with the consumer’s written consent).
* Underwriting of insurance for personal, family or household purposes.
* Government Agencies for determination of consumer’s eligibility for a license or other governmental benefit.
* In connection with a valuation of, or an assessment of the credit or prepayment risks as associated with an existing credit obligation.
* In connection with a legitimate business need relating to a business transaction initiated by the consumer.

“A credit report includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you’ve been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or renting a home.”

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.shtm

I don’t know if it includes the income information, although I would suspect there will be some sort of indication (otherwise why bother checking for affordability.) So there you go, you can get pretty much the same info in US as well.

Is it effective that tax officials are asked to swear to secrecy? Firstly I doubt that is ever effective (or even asked. It’s not FBI, CIA, or NSA.) The protection of tax information is confidentiality, not secrecy. US tax revenue service is allowed to disclose tax info to courts or to a person with a valid search warrant. Secondly, it only takes one leak for your info to go around the world, then all the hyped-up secrecy becomes useless.

As I have said before, security of financial (or any privileged) info is related to, but not the same with privacy. Different approaches are required to manage each effectively.

Finally, there is no good reason for filing this tax saga under the subject of naming right to one’s child. But we know this never stopped Kristian before.

Kristian, I’m on your side. If Finland wants to be in the EU and have a voice in the UN, hthen it should follow the rules it agreed to. I don’t want my information shown to everyone. No way.

Those foreign investors who are basing their decision of moving to Finland on this blog (:lol:) would probably like the fact that they and their children are less likely to be run over in this country.

My income would guarantee a pretty nasty ticket. I solve this by driving according to the speed limit. It hasn’t killed me yet.

In most countries, tax authorities have a fiduciary responsibly to the public they ‘serve.’ The same way doctors cannot divulge your medical history or a government agency can’t publicize your sexual preference (assuming they can collect that info in the first place), the tax authorities of all modern countries are also sworn to secrecy. It’s a very serious legal issue with consequences for breaches of conduct.

Incidentally, aside from the EU and UN human rights treaties mentioned above, Finland has signed tax treaties with other countries such as the US, Australia and others. Those treaties also stipulate secrecy of tax information. I have the feeling that Finland’s conduct regarding those treaties should also be tested in court.

I (or Sirkuspelle) will write a post about that in the near future.

One thing I like about this blog and its many commentors is that it gets noticed by people around the world who search the web. And I assume this topic would be most interesting to professionals thinking about doing business and investing in Finland. It gives them a clearer picture of what’s going on based on experiences of people who live or have lived in Finland.

Isn’t a clearer picture what you would want if standing in their shoes?

Metoothinks that a country in which the education system sucks, almost nobody follows the international media and the majority thinks that Saddam Hussein blew up the twin towers should be bombed to stone age. Nuke Finland!