A new law that will allow increased monitoring of employees’ electronic communications by their employers was passed by Finland’s parliament on Tuesday. Despite splits on the government side – most notably within the Green party – the Bill had a healthy majority: 96 in favour, 56 against, with 47 absent from the vote.

The debate has recently hotted up, with one Government Minister mistakenly suggesting that companies already have the right to strip-search employees. Opponents have also made much of claims that one of the Bill's most active corporate supporters – Nokia – had previously carried out illegal monitoring, and would leave the country if it didn’t get its own way.

At the heart of the the controversy was an amendment to the Act on Data Protection of Electronic Communications. This allows employers to investigate the log data of employees' emails, if the company has reason to suspect that corporate secrets are leaking out of the company or that its communication networks are being misused.

This bill has also been called the "snooping law" and, in recognition of Nokia’s fervent support for it, "Lex Nokia".

Opponents claimed that the proposal was excessive. According to our contacts in the Finnish Greens, Deputy Chief Tero Kurenmaa of the National Bureau of Investigation has been quoted as saying that Lex Nokia would give employers greater powers than those invested in the police.

Earlier this month, Heidi Hautala (Green), the chair of the Finnish Parliament's legal affairs committee, told the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) that she was opposed to the bill.

European Digital Rights reported in December 2008 that the right to confidential communication is considered to be a fundamental right guaranteed under the Finnish constitution, as well as by the European treaty on human rights. The Chancellor of Justice and several law professors have expressed concerns that these fundamental rights will be weakened, while giving corporations excessive leeway.

Despite this, the Constitutional Law Committee stated that the bill was not unconstitutional and that it could be passed as a regular law.

Things got considerably more interesting last week, when Minister of Communications Suvi Lindén claimed that an employer currently has the right to order a strip-search of an employee if there is suspicion that the employee is leaking company secrets.

Following a public dressing-down from legal experts, Suvi Linden agreed that there was no such right and claimed that her comment had been intended as a joke.

More serious is the role taken by Nokia in respect of this debate. It had been reported that in 2006, Nokia told the Ministry of Employment and the Union of Salaried Employees (TU) that it would leave Finland if a new law on protecting electronic communications was not passed.

EDRI further reports that prosecutor Jukka Haavisto has denounced Nokia for illegally monitoring contact information of its employees' email in 2000 to 2001.

El Reg sought clarification on these allegations from Nokia – but at time of publication, we have had no response. However, a report in Helsingin Sanomat claims that the threat (to leave Finland) was put forward by Lasse Laatunen, head of legal affairs at the Confederation of Finnish Industry, who has since said: "I don’t remember saying such a thing and I do not believe that I did."

A spokesman for Nokia said: "Nokia categorically denies making a threat to Finland...the law up till now has been problematic as it can be interpreted in many ways.

"Some reporting on this issue has also been wrong about the content of the law itself, claiming that companies will be able to read employees' emails. This is nonsense. According to the legislation, companies would NOT be able to read the content of emails, but only consult the log data of email, i.e. the names of the sender and recipient, time the email was sent and name and size of attachment. Nokia stresses that it upholds the highest standards with regard to employees’ rights for privacy and other fundamental rights and has every intention to maintain such high standards in the future."

The law appears to legitimise employers who feel that they need to track the activities of employees who are leaking trade secrets, copying copyrighted materials or disrupting corporate networks with attachments and malware. Such a measure has attracted great controversy in Finland.

Readers may wish to compare the current legal position in the UK as set out in guidance from the Information Commissioner. This already appears to legitimise quite extensive monitoring – possibly more extensive than that now made legal in Finland.

As at least one UK expert on these matters concludes: The RIP Act and the IC Regs do not strike an appropriate balance between the interests of employers and workers. ®

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