New Finnish crime centre could collect broad data and classify people

Finland’s government plans to establish a new analysis centre focused on combating organised crime, but experts have raised concerns about its proposed access to confidential information, Yle reports.

The centre would use data from several authorities to support the administrative prevention of organised crime. The Ministry of Justice says the proposed broad right to obtain information could significantly restrict people’s privacy and the protection of their personal data.

The centre’s stated aim would be to strengthen information-sharing and analysis between authorities, weaken criminals’ ability to operate and prevent them from entering lawful structures such as licensed activities and the private security sector.

Under the proposal, the National Bureau of Investigation would lead the centre. Its participating authorities would include the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, the Finnish Border Guard, the Finnish Immigration Service, the Criminal Sanctions Agency, the Enforcement Authority, Customs, the Tax Administration, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, and the Licensing and Control Agency.

The centre could collect a wide range of information for its registers, including data related to social security, taxation, enforcement proceedings and entry into the country. It could also obtain information held by other authorities, organisations assigned public duties and private entities such as companies.

The Ministry of Justice says the right to obtain information must be defined more precisely. It describes the proposed power as applying to an unlimited group of actors’ confidential information and warns that this would significantly restrict the privacy and personal data protection of individuals.

People could be classified without criminal suspicions

The centre’s main task would be to analyse the information it receives and classify groups and individuals as connected to organised crime. The classifications would range from emerging criminal groups to particularly dangerous criminal groups.

A senior police officer working at the centre would decide how groups and individuals were classified. Other authorities could use the centre’s analyses when making administrative decisions.

The centre could also issue statements, either at an authority’s request or on its own initiative, in matters concerning rights or permits. In practice, this could involve an assessment of a person’s links to criminal activity. The draft legislation says the need for such statements would probably be assessed in hundreds of cases.

The Ministry of Justice has stressed that the model’s effectiveness would depend on how accurately it operated. An incorrect classification could cause harm to an individual that would be difficult to repair afterwards.

Classification could have significant legal and negative consequences even for people who were not suspected of a crime and had not committed one. The ministry also says people may unknowingly have connections to organised crime figures through business relationships or social networks.

“The proposed model is based on an administrative assessment rather than a court decision, but it could have immediate and fairly long-lasting legal effects, such as the denial of permits,” Petteri Jartti, a legislative counsellor at the Ministry of Justice, said in the ministry’s statement.

Suvi Pato-Oja, a senior specialist at the Ministry of the Interior, told Yle that the purpose of the proposal was for authorities to use the statements as part of their overall assessment. The consultation on the legislative amendments ended at the beginning of August.