On 26 June, the Finnish Ministry of Labour released a draft new version of the law protecting privacy at the workplace. The proposal would make it legal to read employees' email under certain circumstances. It also contains new regulations on camera surveillance (allowed as long as a single employee is not singled out) and drug testing (widely allowed at work, but not as part of job interviews).

The proposal was sternly criticised in the Finnish media for giving too much leeway to how companies can monitor their employees. Many people are especially concerned about the fact that employers will be allowed to check all kind of emails employees receive while they are sick or on holiday. The traffic data and information in the headers can easily reveal sensitive personal information that should fall under privacy protection. Secondly, even if the proposal categorically forbids employers to open private emails, it is not always possible to know beforehand whether email is private or work related. Emails often contain both kinds of material.

Tietosuoja ja työntekijän valvonta - työryhmä (no English material is currently available)
http://www.mol.fi/julkaisut/tietosuojaraportti.pdf

(Contribution by Ville Oksanen, EFFI)