Processing of personal data by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice

Basis for the processing of personal data

The processing of personal data by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice is governed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018), which specifies and supplements the former, as well as the Act on the Processing of Personal Data in Criminal Matters and in Connection with Maintaining National Security (1054/2018) as far as the prosecutor’s activities are concerned.

The processing of personal data in the Office of the Chancellor of Justice is related to the duties concerning the supervision of legality by the Chancellor of Justice laid down in the Constitution of Finland, Advocates Act (496/1958) and the Licenced Legal Counsel Act (715/2011), the duties stipulated by the Whistleblower Act (1171/2022), as well as the general, human resources and financial administration of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice is Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR (processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject). The legal basis for processing special categories of personal data is Article 9(2)(g) of the GDPR (processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest) and section 6(1)(2) of the Data Protection Act. The legal basis for the processing of personal data related to criminal convictions and offences is Article 10 of the GDPR and section 7(1)(2) of the Data Protection Act.

Processed data

The case management system of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice is used to store information necessary for monitoring the matters under consideration, information identifying the documents submitted to and drawn up by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice, electronic documents submitted to the Office of the Chancellor of Justice, and documents prepared at the Office of the Chancellor of Justice.

The data stored in the Office of the Chancellor of Justice’s case management system on complainants includes their name and contact details they have provided. A complaint submitted by a complainant to the Office of the Chancellor of Justice may contain any personal data concerning the complainant.

The name of a natural person subject to the supervision of legality is not usually stored in the case management system of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice. However, the name can be stored in the system at the end of the case if the person is subject to actions by the Chancellor of Justice. A complaint submitted by the complainant to the Office of the Chancellor of Justice may contain personal data concerning any natural person subject to the complaint.

In matters of whistleblower protection, the personal data of the whistleblower is not included in the matter as the initiator, nor is the personal data of the subject of the report included in the matter. The personal data of the whistleblower and the subject of the report are processed in the documents regarding the report, such as the report itself. Whistleblower reports may include any kind of personal data that was included by the whistleblower in their report.

The data stored on an applicant to a public post in the case management system of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice includes the applicant’s name and personal details they have provided. An application submitted by an applicant to the Office of the Chancellor of Justice may contain any personal data concerning the applicant.

Processing of data

The Office’s personal data processing measures are limited to what is necessary for the performance of duties. The personal data may only be processed by those public officials working for the Office who need the data for the performance of their official duties. Only persons who have been appointed in accordance with the Whistleblower Act may process personal data in matters of whistleblower protection. In addition, the registry of the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman has access to the information necessary for monitoring the processed matters stored in the case management system of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice in order to implement the Act on the division of Duties between the Chancellor of Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman (1224/1990). The Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s access to the information of matters does not apply to reporting under whistleblower protection.

Data stored in the case management system of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice are not transferred to third countries or international organisations.

The data necessary for the monitoring of pending cases stored in the case management system of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice are stored permanently. Documents submitted to and prepared by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice and the personal data contained therein are stored in accordance with the storage periods specified in the Office’s archives regulations.

Rights of the data subject

The data subject has the right to access the data in accordance with Article 15, the right to rectify the data in accordance with Article 16, and the right to restrict the processing in accordance with Article 18 of the GDPR.

Data subject right restriction regarding whistleblower protection matters: Article 18 of the General Data Protection Regulation on the data subject’s right to restrict data processing is not applied to whistleblower protection matters, and the data subject’s right of access to data granted by Article 15 may be restricted if it is necessary and proportionate to safeguard the report’s investigation or the whistleblower’s identity. If only some of the information may be excluded from the right granted by Article 15, the data subject has the right to be informed of the other information concerning them. The data subject has the right to be informed of the reasons for the restriction and request the release of the information to the Data Protection Ombudsman in accordance with section 34, subsections 3 and 4 of the Data Protection Act (1050/2018).

Any requests based on these rights must be addressed to the Office of the Chancellor of Justice.

The processing of personal data by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice is supervised by the Chancellor of Justice.

More information

The privacy statements of the case management system, the Valtiolle.fi system and the mailing list are published on the website of the Chancellor of Justice (www.oikeuskansleri.fi) under “Processing of personal data”.

Contact information

Controller

Office of the Chancellor of Justice

Visiting address: Snellmaninkatu 1 A, Helsinki

Postal address: P.O. Box 20, FI-00023 GOVERNMENT

Email: kirjaamo.okv(at)gov.fi

Telephone: +358 (0)295 162 902 (registry)

Data protection officer

Pekka Liesivuori, Senior Legal Adviser to the Chancellor of Justice

Postal address: P.O. Box 20, FI-00023 GOVERNMENT

Email address: [email protected]