Page 22 - Quarterly Q1-Q2 2018

QUARTERLY Q/1–Q/2 – 2018
INNOVATION POWERHOUSE
The GDPR and Its National Derogations
P22 The GDPR became applicable on 25 May 2018. The Member States were required to make the necessary changes to their national laws before that. However, like some other Member States, Finland is still working on that, as the Government Bill is still in parliamentary proceedings.
Like many other Member States, Finland has not yet made the relevant changes to its legislation. The Government Bill for the new Data Protection Act (“Tietosuojalaki”) was given to Parliament on the 1st of March, and it is currently being reviewed by the Administration Committee; the Bill will be passed by the Parliament, hopefully, before the summer holidays. Therefore, it’s a good time to look at the main national derogations, and Finland’s decisions about them.
Respecting Harmonisation, Where Possible
The GDPR aims to harmonise European data protection laws. For the most part it does that,
but the EU legislators also left some issues to
be decided by the Member States, partly due to many compromises in the negotiations, partly because of the difficulties full harmonisation would create. The Finnish legislators respect the aim of harmonisation, as the GDPR will also be applied to personal data processing outside the scope of the GDPR. However, the new Data Protection Act will not add any extra requirements on top of the GDPR, as some national legislations seem to be doing.
There will, however, be areas of data processing that are not harmonised, mainly in the context
of employment. The protection of privacy in working life will continue having specific and strict regulation, and Finnish employees continue to enjoy a high level of privacy protection, compared to many other Member States.
Jukka Lång from D&I was heard before the Legal Affairs Committee on the Government Bill for the new Data Protection Act.
The Applicable Age for a Child’s Consent Will Be 13
The GDPR contains rules for children’s consent in relation to information society services. The relevant age limit in Finland will be 13.
Even small deviations are deviations, and therefore harmonisation is not being achieved here. The age limit will be between 13 and 16 in other Member States. Fortunately, Finland took into account the approach taken by other Nordic countries, and also the ways children use these services in practice.