Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Monday 2 February 2009, 5:03 PM
Nokia denies threat to leave Finland
However, according to reports, Nokia threatened to leave Finland in protest at its employee privacy laws - not quite the most honourable way to walk out, but there you go. Worth noting at this point: the story is being denied by both Nokia and the Finnish government.
If the Helsingin Sanomat story is true, Nokia lobbied politicians to change a law - that now looks set to be changed - which prohibits employers from spying on their employees' emails. The company allegedly did so after it suspected that an employee had passed on trade secrets to rival manufacturer Huawei, and started rootling around people's email accounts.
I suspect this is one of those stories that will always remain uncertain, unless some government-unseating evidence were to come to light. So, we just don't know. But, if Nokia were to leave Finland, the effect would likely be devastating.
PreviousComments on this post
There has been significant discussion within the media about a Finnish government-backed bill that proposes an amendment to the Act on Data Protection of Electronic Communications.
Much of the reporting on this issue, starting with an article in the Sunday edition of the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat, has been inaccurate and misleading.
As communicated by the wider Finnish business community, including the Confederation of Finnish Industries (www.ek.fi), the proposed legislation would offer clarity for Finnish business in the event that trade secrets are suspected to have been leaked. As a member of the Confederation of Finnish Industries, Nokia supports this proposed change in the law.
According to the proposed legislation, only in very exceptional circumstances, and only in accordance with stringent procedures, would it be possible for a company to consult email log data. Such data would reveal the sender and recipient’s names, but NOT the content of the email. 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.
Nokia is astonished about the recent reporting on this issue and categorically denies making a threat to leave Finland, as claimed by the flawed Helsingin Sanomat article. That Nokia continues to have a significant presence in Finland is determined by business-related factors and is not influenced in the least by the proposed legislation discussed by the article.
