Travelling especially to the USA got a bit more interesting now that all new passports should be biometric. When I heard first of this biometric thing I was wondering if they had a strip of my DNA there like in every half-decent sci-fi movie or at least a retinal scan like they have in every spy movie, but the “biometric data” is as boring as a mugshot, and starting later next year fingerprints.

Or are fingerprints boring? They’ve been used for over a hundred years in forensics to identify people, as fingerprints are unique to each person. You have every other crime movie out there having someone dusting for fingerprints, even in CSI they still do it though it requires super glue and and hot air. So its definitely something even your average joe on the street recognizes whats it for.

The Aamulehti today ripped a headline over the newly appointed Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero wanting to form a fingerprint registry of Finnish citizens. Within ten years all adult Finnish citizens would be fingerprinted as fingerprinting would be a prerequisite of getting a passport (and probably ID card as well) The reason given is that with the registry it would be impossible to use forged passports and of course it would enable the police to find out their perps quite effectively. The Data Protection Ombudsman Reijo Aarnio is all against the idea of establishing a national fingerprint register.

In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people’s windows. The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered.

There is an old saying: “The manure pile won’t stink unless you go poking it.” and it seems there is nothing better to do than go poking during the summer. In the beginning of the summer there were some remarks made of doping in Finland, and as a few former skiers denied vehemently the use EPO-hormones or any knowledge of blood-doping - last week the ex-coach Kari-Pekka Kyrö came forward making a number of statements implying that the Finnish Skiing Association wasn’t as clean as they presented themselves during the 2001 Lahti Hemohes scandal. And his stories have been corroborated by others, so the story is opening up daily. As the Finnish News Agency chief editor and reporter were convicted of libel in 1999 due to claims of doping that were at the time “unfounded”, the NBI has reopened the investigation. Better late than never I guess.

Another case not as ancient re-surfacing is the infamous Sonera-book which the supreme court returned to the assizes overturning the inadmissibility of evidence. Now the public opinion on the case would be rather than trying to find the author to find “Where disappeared the money of Sonera” as the book title reads. They bought some air in Germany if I recall it correctly.

Maybe I should start a properly to go with the retro feelings and buy a Jopo.

The Helsingin Sanomat today reports of a court case where two teenage boys aged 15 and 16 were sentenced for “sexual abuse” though “performed as a young person” so they got 50 day fines each and to pay damages amounting to 1600 euros. A slap on the wrist maybe, as 50 days amounts for 300 euros, but…  The boys had enticed a girl aged 10 to strip on a webcam through the “Messenger” net.  The details shall be obscure as the case was behind closed doors and the court records sealed until 2068.  Now I just wonder where is the responsibility of the parents letting their 10-year old strip on a webcam?

Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund has called for age limits and supervision to protect children and young people on the internet.

Addressing a seminar on the use of the internet by young users, Holmlund noted that on-line message boards are popular among the young. For that reason, she feels that they should have security personnel just like entertainment venues in the offline world do.

LOL!! There’s gazillions of forums out there, how exactly does she expect for the administrators to check people’s ages?? And how about forums outside the country?

This piece of news from the Helsingin Sanomat really rang up high on the bizarrometer.

OK, so we have teenage angst and too much tv:

Police suspect that a 16-year-old Helsinki girl paid a 19-year-old man to kill her mother.

And what was with this “handgun ownership” so rampant in Finland then?

A moment later the woman felt a strong blow to the back of her head… One of the men had shot the woman with a crossbow - the kind that is used to shoot small game, police say.

Kinda… medieval this one.

Police say that the 16-year-old daughter had promised the 19-year-old man a cash payment for the killing. The daughter did not live with the mother at the time of the attack. The man had persuaded two 20-year-old friends to join him. The crime was planned at the Espoo home of a fourth man, who now faces charges of aiding and abetting. The suspects, all native-born Finns, do not have any prior criminal records.

Kids, don’t eat that yellow snow.

Happy New Year!! And best wishes from Finnish politicians who’ve rang in the New Year with higher taxes and stricter regulations…

- Taxation will pump up the price of gasoline by 5 cents a litre, and diesel by 5 and a half cents. On average, motorists can expect to spend up to 60 euros more on fuel.

- The price of bus tickets is also expected to rise by 5.2 percent, while long-distance train tickets will cost on average 2.9 percent more.

- Sending snail mail will also a bit cost more in the new year. Mailing a package will cost 7 percent more, unless it weighs less than 50 grams

- Prime or base interest rates will rise to 4.75 percent, up from the 4.25 percent level of the last six months.

- Television commercials for alcoholic beverages are now banned from television screens between 7.00 am and 8.00 pm, and are forbidden in cinemas during movies for patrons under the age of 18.

Gee, thanks politicians! And here’s the real kicker, no more discounts on alcohol, a 12-pack will cost the same as if you’re buying 12 individual beers. This means I’ll be buying more imports instead of saving money on shitty Finnish beer…

- Bulk discounts on multiple packs of alcoholic beverages are a thing of the past. The practice of outdoor advertising of other discounted alcoholic drinks such as cheaper drinks offered during a “happy hour” is also against the law.

And what is quite ironic - cold, dreary, suicidal Finland is banning “Happy Hour”. Finnish politicians have taken away a restaurant/pub’s freedom to lower prices of their products in order to compete. We had a couple happy hours per day from 4 to 6, but now it’s unhappiness in Finland 24/7.

Let’s see - the leftist Social Democrats liberalized alcohol under their administration and the right-wing Kokoomus have tightened regulations. I’m definitely a lefty.

I can’t believe hockey player Jere Karalahti is still in jail on drug charges. I’m not convinced that he’s guilty of anything, and it gets me thinking about drug policy in the Nordics.

What I don’t understand is that professional sports stars, like ones who compete in ice hockey, rugby, football, auto racing, boxing and even ski jumping, can have multiple concussions and other devastating head injuries; yet it’s so natural to think, “It’s OK because those injuries were suffered while playing sports. Carry on fearless warrior!” Nevermind that some of them will no longer be among the sharper pencils in the drawer…not that all of them were to begin with.

Whereas I don’t know anything specific about Jere’s case, when an average Pekka Jääkiekko wants to relax with his buddies and snuffle a few lines of white powder on a Saturday night, many of us are programmed to think, “Oh no, we can’t have THAT!” But sports head injuries are OK.

Of course, I’m being facetious by even remotely suggesting that the normal outcome of playing sports or using drugs results in permanent brain injuries. In either case, the chance is remote. Most sportsmen recover from their injuries, and the vast majority of recreational drug users never have problems in the first place. But why is there such a double standard?

We in Europe can learn from the follies of the United States, which has been using anti-drug propaganda for several decades now to justify its War on Drugs, a sustained effort to fund the prison industry. There are more people in US jails than in Russia and China combined. It’s a real human rights mess. That’s not to say we don’t have our own embarrassing practices here—albeit unrelated to prisons and drugs—but at least we’re not on the verge of needing to colonize the moon to secure more prison real estate.
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Most amazingly, American workers even prostitute themselves by offering bodily fluid samples for their corporate bosses to inspect. And the US sports industry is on the warpath with ridiculous testing regiments of its own for athletes. It’s such an embarrassing and unnecessary procedure for participants. The politically connected drug testing industry doesn’t seem to mind though.

Yet by all observations, these measures aren’t stopping anyone from doing illegal drugs. In fact, Americans love drugs more than ever! The passion spans all socio-economic strata, professions and age groups. It seems to abide well with the American work hard & play hard ethic. The sad part is that, whereas most people’s lives aren’t being harmed by the drugs themselves, they are instead impeded by the prison sentences, interrupted careers and other legal troubles associated with drug policies.

Now, none of this is meant to imply that drugs are wonderful. The above-mentioned powders have addiction rates and cause destructive illnesses just like alcohol; the chances of being afflicted are small but exist nonetheless. But let’s remember, there’s also a chance of suffering debilitating injuries while riding a bicycle—those little Styrofoam helmets might be concrete-resistant, but they’re not concrete-proof—or parachuting, hang gliding or cliff climbing for that matter. Life is full of risk choices.

The biggest danger that I see, aside from the legal troubles, is the possibility of ingesting a mixture containing something found in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. You just never know what some unscrupulous dealer might have used to dilute the product. Maybe he was short on baking flour, but too lazy to run to the store? Out comes the carpet cleanser. The chance of impurity is probably more harmful than the drug itself.

Given this pitfall, and the fact that keeping drugs illegal only raises profits and encourages more sales and usage (it’s probably the biggest business in America), why not follow the Swiss example of providing those with serious drug ‘desires’ a rationed assortment of whatever makes them happiest—after all, isn’t life about being happy? Surely it can’t only be about punishing each other for our differing preferences.

So to really seal our place in history as being part of the enlightened Nordics, let’s take the entire drug market away from greedy criminals and put it where it belongs: The government.

We can begin by opening a sister-monopoly to the famous Alko, Finland’s governmental alcohol pusher. The new enterprise can be named Narko; hence, together they’ll form the Alko-Narko Alliance. The new monopoly can have the same high prices, narrow selection and limited opening hours as its older sibling. Naturally, it will also have government workers who’ll occasionally strike for higher pay. Rest assured, we can even continue to enjoy the long cues before holidays.

And best yet: when the European Commission again censures Finland for its anti-competitive practices, we can defensively retort: “We need Narko to control drug addiction!” But this time, it might actually be an honest statement.

You said it Elvis!

There is always a question of why someone aspiring to starting a company in Finland is faced with “negativity”… the Finns - those that are friendly that is, will call a person crazy, and then relate a story of enterpreneurship, bank loans, devalvation, reposession, alcoholism and suicide. There was no such thing as a personal bankruptcy and debts being cancelled. The current law even passes the debts to the inheritors of a deceased person in some cases.

The parliament has passed a law that makes the maximum time of a debt to be in collection 15 years, in some cases 20. Currently, theres still debts from the 1960’s in collection. So, finally, there is an end date for a debt.

The measure is a drastic one according to EU standards, but the majority of these debts are from the 1990’s recession when enterpreneurs had guaranteed their debts personally, or gotten relatives and friends to co-sign for them. Beyond the idiocy of starting a business is co-signing. The Bank came after the co-signer. Theres several people who lost everything they had, or if they hadn’t anything any chance for a decent life by co-signing their life away. How can you deny co-signing for your dad’s business at 18? “Its just a formality?”. Well, nobody says “The Banks” were acting in a responsible manner, but very few of the bank managers were found responsible even the court cases dragged on for years. The time was very traumatic, and touched a lot of people, hence those warning speeches.

However the law won’t give a “get free from jail” card. There are catches. A court can give another 10 years if the person in debt has “acted inappropriately” as in hiding assets. Also underage kids are observed. Unless the collection is due to fines or reparations, the county magistrate must be notified. This is to prevent exploitation and also young people getting negative credit records. And once you die, you can rest in peace, as after that the estate is not liable for the debts as it is now.

Oh, why the “Finns are so negative” ? Maybe its just bogeyman stories. Lets look a bit at the statistics from the Statistics Centre (2006 figures), private people can’t go bankrupt, but the statistics on debt rearrangements mean some 4000 people get into trouble yearly. As for warning against starting a business the statistics on banktrupcies indicate that under 3000 enterprises are put in the process. Now the statistics on established and ceased companies would indicate that it is really only a 10% that will get into serious trouble. But as for the trauma of the bogeyman, do note the 1990’s there in the statistics.

By the end of 2007 there was 312 100 people in collection. The record year was 1994, with some 512 600 people. So, whats that, a bit more than the population of Espoo, when it used to be the population of Helsinki…

 

Veropörssi, a list of names and incomes in newspaper format for 9,80. Sorry about the poor quality picture. It was taken yesterday.

Pornography is something that is normally very taboo to look at or talk about in normal everyday society, like at work, for example. There are some people who sell and publish it in order to make money. There are enough people who are excited about it and addicted to it to make it a very big industry. It makes a lot of money for those selling it and it entertains those consuming it - there is really no other use for it. It is actually considered by some to be quite dangerous and the industry has a reputation for being quite “dirty”. Acquiring pornographic material is often done in a coercive manner, that is against the wishes of the subject of the pornography. Often, it is very damaging to the subject. Images of people exposing their reproductive organs, and performing sexual acts is something that belongs in the arena of private life, most agree. It is not information that should be sold or published, at least not without consent.

In Finland, material that is very taboo to bring up in everyday Finnish society is nicely packaged up, sold to the press for money, published or released. It excites many people and many are very addicted to it. It is also damaging to many people and puts some into danger. It is done without the permission of the subject. It is there purely to make money for those publishing it and to entertain those buying it and has no other real use. And, in this case, this industry is run and sanctioned by the government. It is called “public tax records” or “julkiset verotiedot” - in other words, lists of people’s names, salaries, captital incomes, and municipalities where they live. This is an industry that is quite comparable to the pornography industry. And many feel violated by it.

Is there anything that can be done about it? Yes, for certain. If you feel like your own rights are violated in any way by this, it is important to file a complaint to the European Commission. Let them know that you feel your rights are violated - that is what they are there for. Let a parlaiment member know as well. You don’t need to quote any laws, they are aware of this issue here in Finland already. Complaints to the EC will actually help the Finnish government establish a solid foundation for new legislation, a foundation which will weather the changing political fashions and the complaints from people who feel like it is their right to monitor other peoples’ financial matters. 

This is taken from http://keskustelu.plaza.fi/ajassa/keskustelu/t1641815-8612867#m8612867 This just keeps getting better and better. It was posted on 2.10.2007 

Tax office revealed the municipality of a customer who was under a Privacy Protection Order

My relative needed to apply for a restraining and privacy protection order and move to another municipality about 5 years ago because of harrassing behaviour from an ex-partner. As a normal Finnish person, she needs to go to work and get paid taxable income. Her harrassing ex-partner succeeded in tracking down her new municipality from her salary, because the tax office, against the order of the court and magistrate, went and gave the press the info of my relative’s tax municipality. The information was published and now there has been such serious harrassment and threatening, that another move is ahead. The tax office has said that they give information about the municipality about every taxpayer and that plucking out each customer under a protection of privacy order would cause them way too much work. The second time, the tax office said that this issue does not belong to them.How can the tax office give out such information, that another official has declared confidential, and defend that the tax municipality can be published? Isn’t the tax municipality the same as the residence municipality? Who can one turn to with this problem, if not the tax official who hascreated this problem?

This is a discussion from Parlaiment from beginning of 2005 that I translated into English.

Written question

KK 992/2004 vp - Paula Risikko /National Coalition Party

WRITTEN QUESTION 992/2004 vp
Improvement of the law regarding publicity of tax records.

To the Speaker of Parlaiment

The law regarding the publicity and secrecy of tax records (1346/1999 ) defines that such tax records are to be kept secret, which have information regarding the tax payer’s financial standing, excluding those details, which are defined as public in 5-9 and 21 of this law. The taxpayers income, paid tax, amount of prepaid tax and tax returned or tax to be paid are defined as public tax records.

The previously mentioned procedure is a result of attempting to achieve a fair relation between the tax authority’s transparency and increased trustworthyness by increasing openness and on the other hand protecting the person’s privacy and, among other things, business secrets.

It is correct and worth supporting that the citizens have, for example through the media, a possibility to get information from, for example, officials, business leaders and politicians’ salary levels and the extent of possible side incomes and tax percentages.

In this case, the starting point should be that the tax authority’s information should be as correct as possible. The goal is not completely achieved in the current framework of the legislation regarding the publicity of tax records. Tax records are, in practicality, public only in the stage that the taxation is ready. Taxation is a broad and complicated process, that there will always be a certain number of mistakes. The taxation is fixed and the mistakes are corrected sometimes even years after the taxation is ready.

The probem is that tax records which are cleaned of mistakes and fixed are, in practice, no longer public information. Faulty information has been possibly published when the tax records were ready, but the fixed and correct tax information is no longer public. The corrections remain secret, but the faulty information continues in circulation. Even when someone complains about their own taxation, it is secret information in practice.

There are numerous examples, which have been also publicized, for example, economics reporter Tuomo Pietiläinen presented good arguments regarding this in his column (HS 6.11.2004). The author concludes that in public tax records, there has been anomalies and mistakes nearly every year. A businessman, who was completely broke is in the top for property statistics, or a fireman who has a salary of 16 million Euros.

Another problem with public tax records is shown in another practical example: Underage siblings had recieved corporate stocks as an inheritance and gift. The parents intention was to handle the children’s ownership of the stocks in such a way, that the dividends were reinvested into buying the siblings more stocks. In the familiar way we have seen in the recent years, the regular growth of the stocks increased suddenly in a dramatic way, and this showed later in the children’s tax records. The underage children, because of the way they were raised, didn’t know very much about the nest-egg that would be waiting for them when they are adults. Their names were published together with the other tax records in newspapers, and the result was quite difficult and trying situation to be come the object of publicity. This also included, among other things, a death threat and completely unfounded hinting that the family was practicing tax planning.

It is clear that the legislator did not intend for his law to work in the way presented in the real life examples mentioned previously. Therefore there is reason to clarify the text of the law to better serve the original purpose.

The legislation regarding the publicity of tax records will probably need to be changed in, for example the stopping of wealth tax ….. In conjunction with this is a natural opportunity to change other observed problematic areas.

Based on the previous and according to the Parlaiment Rules of Procedure 27 I present the following question to be answered to the concerned members of the government council:

Is it in the knowledge of the government the practical effects of these certain injustices in the law regarding publicity of tax records and how does the government intend to correct the deficiencies in the legislation regarding the grievances presented here in the previous arguments?

Helsinki 14 December 2004

Paula Risikko /National Coalition Party

To the Speaker of Parlaiment

In the Parlaiment Rules of Procedure in the intent of 27 § You, Mr. Chairman, have delivered Representative Paula Risikko’s (National Coalition Party) written question to be ansered by the concered minister. KK 992/2004 vp:

Is it in the knowledge of the government the practical effects of these certain injustices in the law regarding publicity of tax records and how does the government intend to correct the deficiencies in the legislation regarding the grievances presented here in the previous arguments?

As an answer to to the question I present the following:

The publicity of tax records has been, from old times, valid during the whole period of the current tax system. There has often arisen discussion, because tax records do not naturally tell the whole truth about citizens’ wealth and income. In recent times, the situation has emphasized movement of capital because of internationalization. it is a problem of its own, the problems that are created when the occasional mistake pops up in tax records that the asker is referring to, despite the fact that their significance has noticeably decreased as the correctness of the tax records has increased. When we take into consideration that tax events are in the millions, mistakes actually happen surprisingly little. Even one mistake is, of course, too many, and they should not be underestimated.

We last had a broad and lively discussion about the publicity of tax records around half way through the last decade. It was brought forward from the level of the officials the possibility of giving up public tax records, which were considered in modern circumstances to be unnecessarily exposing information that belongs in the sphere of privacy. Using statistical methods, we can get a rather precise picture of society’s structure of income and wealth. In the modern world, tax surveillance methods have become so well developed, that public tax records are no longer necessary for so called neighbour control. The discussion that occurred at that time however received the same blunt verdict from many different politicians: there is not one party in Parliament that is prepared to support even partially limiting public tax records. It was generally held from the viewpoint of societal morals to be important, that also singular persons’ income and wealth information be made public. Something that certainly affected this was pure human curiosity. For the media, it is also a question of money. We can return to this discussion at any time, when the time seems right. Since there are really no grounds for this system, there would probably be no opposition from the Ministry of Finance government. So the question is a purely political matter.

Helsinki 5 January 2005, Vice Minister of Finance, Ulla-Maj Wideroos

http://www.vero.fi/nc/viewarticle.asp?article=5761&language=FIN

I have been talking about how the Finnish government is selling peoples’ tax records. Now you can have a concrete look at how it is done.
I found this article on the Tax Authority’s website from the link above. It gives the prices they charge for selling the personal data to the press to be published. I translated it into English, so you could see and read this.

Here you are:

Income taxation public info is available for order

Press release 4.10.2007, Tax Authority
Tax Year 2006 income taxation information becomes public 1.11.2007, and the tax authority can, according to the law, release the public income taxation information for journalistic purposes in electronic format.

Wealth tax has been removed from the beginning of 2006, so the public information no longer contains information about the taxpayers’ wealth. The public information is:

For Natural Persons:
Name, year of birth, municipality, government taxable income and captital income, municipal taxable income, income tax, municipal tax, taxes and payments owed, total of tax advances, amount of tax collections to be paid or returned.

For Organizations:
Name, municipality, business or organizational symbol, taxable income, total tax owed, total of tax advances, amount of tax collection to be paid or returned.

How to order

A binding order for release of data is done in writing with an order form, which should be sent by 17.10.2007 to:

Verohallitus (Tax Authority)
Tietopalveluyksikkö (Information Service Center)
PL 325
00052 VERO

We will try to deliver orders made by 17.10.2007 on 1.11.2007. The information can be picked up from the Tax Authority in Helsinki or in Jyväskylä. The information can also be mailed to the customer starting 1.11.2007.

Orders made later will be delivered on an agreed timetable.

More detailed instructions and order forms can be found at www.vero.fi/mediapalvelu

Prices

A fee is charged for release of data. The price is 0,36 € (+ VAT 22%) /line of data, with a minimum of 20 € (+ alv 22%) /order.

More information for editors:
Senior Advisor Taito von Konow, puh. (09) 7311 4165
Technical matters (8.10 alkaen) head coordinator Merja Seppä-Heikka puh. (09) 7311 4167

E-mail addresses are in the format: first-name.last-name@vero.fi

Printable version © Verohallinto 4.10.2007 Send a link.

——————-end of translation

At these prices, if one line of data corresponds to one person’s tax records, then the Ilta-rags are charged 360 Euros for putting the top 1000 people in the net. However, I don’t think 1 line of data corresponds to 1 person’s records, so they are paying quite a bit more.

If Veropörssi were to pay for the tax records, then for 1,2 million people, that would be 432,000 Euros if indeed 1 line = 1 person’s record. Quite a little business opportunity. Too bad it doesn’t seem to be quite legal in the EU to wholesale personal data. Also, the other big government data registries like ake.fi and vrk.fi will not release personal data if the data subject has objected to it, which they say is required of them by 95/46/EC.

It would also be interesting to know where this money from the sale of personal data is going.

(picture from Wikipedia, slightly modified. Thank Krusty!)

Sorry to repeat my post. I wanted to get this out in Finnish as well.

The Finnish government sells your personal data to companies and the press to be published, sold, put in magazines and sold as SMS services. The data ends up in the Internet in the torrent trackers. And they give you no right to do anything about it. If you want to do something about it, file a complaint to the European Commission. They take these complaints seriously. And they don’t bite.

Suomen valtio (verotoimisto) myy henkilötietojasi yrityksille ja lehdistölle julkaistavaksi ja myytäväksi lehdissä ja mobiilipalveluina. Henkilötieto päättyy Internet:iin torrent-trakereille. Ja he eivät anna sulle mitään oikeutta tehdä jotain asiasta. (vrk.fi ja ake.fi antavat tietojen luovutuskieltooikeuden, esm.) Jos et pidä tästä, tee valitus Euroopan Kommissiolle. He ottavat nämä valitukset vakavasti. Ja he eivät pure.

Link to the complaint form and instructions. Linkki valitus lomakkeelle ja ohjeille.

http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/your_rights/your_rights_forms_en.htm

DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC.

The main problems are: Pääongelmat on:

1. No permission is asked. Ei ole pyydetty lupaa.

2. No right to object. (AKE.fi and VRK.fi each give the right to object, which they state is part of this law.) Ei ole tietojen luovutuskieltooikeutta. (Ake.fi ja VRK.fi antavat kieltokoikeuden, ja he sanovat että se oikeus tulee tästä direkiivista. )

3. Wholesaling of personal data. (against the guidance of the Article 29 Working Group, which is part of the EC) Henkilötietojen tukkumyyntiä. (se on vastion Artikla 29 Työryhmän opastusta. He ovat osaa Euroopan Kommissiota, ryhmä joka suojelee henkilötietoa.)

4. Privacy is not respected. Ykstyisyyttä ei kunnioiteta.

5. No safeguards. The data ends up in the Internet, accessible to anyone in the world. Ei ole turvatoimeja. Tieto päättyy Internetiin, saatavana kenelle vain maailmassa.

6. Free movement of people between borders of member states. Do you want to move to another EU country and loose one of your human rights, that of privacy? Ihmisten vapaa liikkuvuus jäsenmaiden välissä. Haluatko muuttaa toiseen EU maahaan ja menettää yhden ihmisoikeuksistasi, oikeus yksityisyyteen.

The right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary interference with one’s private and family life is part of the list of basic human rights. Oikeus yksityisyyteen ja oikeus olla vapaa yksityis- ja perheelämän häiritsemisestä on yksi perusihmisoikeuksista ihmisoikeuslistalla.

The right to protection of personal data is part of the basic list of rights for the EU. Henkilötietojen suoja on yksi perusoikeus kaikille Euroopan Unionissa.

Verosirkus. E-mail the contact address there if you want free help in Finnish or English. Kontakti osoitteelta saat ilmaista apua Englanniksi tai Suomeksi.

http://www.iltalehti.fi/verot/tiedot

They have the top earners there listed again by municipality. Sigh.

Soon we will see the circus start up again, to great shame and embarassment to the people of this country.

It is amazing that Finland is still adhering to this  old Swedish tattle-tale police-your-neighbour guilty-till-proven-innocent tax collection system method of getting people to police each others’ money matters,  which is a crappy way to run a country to begin with. Now in the EU, the tax authority needs to produce evidence in order to punish somone for a tax crime, and not just command someone to pay what they “think” should be paid so the days of tattle-tale, guilty-till-proven-innocent tax collection are over. Evidence is needed. Even if the practice was unhealthy to begin with, nowadays the public tax records in Finland are only to entertain the masses and grease the palm of the press. That has even been said in the Finnish parlaiment. There are probably some very unhealthy relationships between some Finnish decision makers and the press that need to be further explored. Something that some people parade as a tool to help against corruption seems to be a product of corruption. Public tax records don’t seem to be needed by the social welfare states of Canada and New Zealand - they both have very low levels of corruption. The same is also true of the other EU states.

If you want to help put a stop to this circus of selling and publishing of personal private information without permission, file a complaint to the European Commission. The complaint form is on this link here with the address to send it to.

Also talk to your parlaiment representative. Tell him or her that you have filed a complaint to the EC about this.

http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/your_rights/your_rights_forms_en.htm

You can quot some or all of the following in the complaint. The main law that is the problem is DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC.

The main problems are:

1. No permission is asked.

2. No right to object. (AKE.fi and VRK.fi each give the right to object, which they state is part of this law.)

3. Wholesaling of personal data. (against the guidance of the Article 29 Working Group, which is part of the EC)

4. Privacy is not respected.

5. No safeguards. The data ends up in the Internet, accessible to anyone in the world.

6. Free movement of people between borders of member states. Do you want to move to another  EU country and loose one of your human rights, that of privacy?

The right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary interference with one’s private and family life is part of the list of basic human rights.

The right to protection of personal data is part of the basic list of rights for the EU.

Put the pressure on. This needs to be stopped. The EC will send you a letter after a few weeks saying that your complaint has been registered. That is the first step. At some point they may escalate it to an “infringement procedure”. There is also a court case coming up in the European Court of Justice. The more complaints there are, the more pressure there is to stop this. It is important for people of other EU countries and other countries living here to tell that this is not acceptable, when you have no representation in parlaiment. It is also important for Finns to step up and do the same, since it is obvious that parlaiment has not acted in the better interests of the people of this country in this matter.

Also see Verosirkus. E-mail the contact address there if you want free help in Finnish or English.

Before we discuss illegal police searches, here’s an interesting side note to introduce the topic: In Finland, the Names Act limits parents’ choices in naming their offspring; only names with historical and ethnic relevance are accepted as valid entries. In this case, parents were denied their preference, so they sued in the The European Court of Human Rights and won…

The European Court of Human Rights has delivered a judgement on a violation of Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human rights, following the refusal of the Finnish authorities to register the forename Axl Mick for the applicants’ son.

I assume this is an amalgam of the names Axl Rose and Mick Jagger. But only the parents know for sure.

Whereas the Names Act has been eased somewhat since 1999 when this case was first brought to The Court, there might be reason to believe that Finland is in conflict with Article 8 on another, perhaps more serious ground. Therefore, I would like to direct your attention to Article 8 of The European Convention on Human Rights, to which Finland is a signatory:

ARTICLE 8

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Imagine that you are stopped for suspicion of speeding, and the police demand to follow you home and rifle-through your personal files and data. Then, everything from pay records to investment and bank statements are used for determining the amount your fine should be.

In the United States, this would be considered “Illegal Search and Seizure” by police. The right to privacy is guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads:

Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Obviously, Finland is not the United States, so its residents can’t benefit from Fourth Amendment protections. But Finland did sign the aforementioned European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone “the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right…”

The wording of Article 8 seems remarkably similar to the Fourth Amendment and is apparently meant to span an even broader range of circumstances. After all, The European Court of Human Rights determined that the naming of a person’s child is covered under Article 8’s definition. So, perhaps it is no big stretch to assume that a person’s personal financial data is also covered.

But that’s not all. Let’s consider that Article 8 of the the European Convention of Human Rights is grounded in Article 12 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Finland is also a signatory. It reads:

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Of course, for the most part, this “interference with privacy” in Finland is done electronically; not via paper correspondence. Nonetheless, it’s an invasion of privacy. And in my opinion, the practice breaches both, Articles 8 & 12 of their respective conventions. It will be interesting to see if the newly elected Parliament addresses this impropriety or whether it’s yet another matter that needs to be tested by The European Court of Human Rights.

After all, if you’re an educated and talented professional who is considering a move to Finland, wouldn’t you expect to receive all the human rights protections granted to you by the European Union and United Nations?

And on a more personal level, would you want your private financial details closely examined by the average traffic cop? For a speeding ticket?

If you are interested in further reading, here is an excellent reference on this topic and more.