Non-disclosure of personal information
Personal and address data contained in the Population Information System is used for checking legal capacity, in government decision-making, address service, academic research, statistics, updating of customer registers, market research, opinion polls, direct advertising and judicial administration. Everyone has a right to forbid the disclosure of his or her personal information by the Population Information System for purposes such as direct advertising, market research, opinion polls, public registers or genealogical research. In addition, everyone has a right to forbid the disclosure of his or her contact details for use in a contact, address or other similar data service, and to forbid the disclosure of his or her personal information for the update of a customer register or another equitable register.
NOTE! The address service prohibition was removed on 1 January 2013 and has been replaced with two new prohibitions: the contact detail disclosure prohibition and the customer register update prohibition. The Population Register Centre registers both prohibitions in the Population Information System for those people who have an existing address service prohibition in place. This will not cause any changes for those who have forbidden the disclosure of their information for address services, because the combined effect of the new prohibitions matches that of the address service prohibition. If the person wants to use only one of the two prohibitions, he or she must notify the local register office.
Disclosure can be forbidden by completing and sending by mail the printable form "Non-disclosure of personal information", which can be found on the right side of this page. Disclosure can also be forbidden with the help of a chip ID card or Internet Bank access codes at the Population Register Centre's
Check Your Registered Data! service or by phone or via an informal letter addressed to
local register office or to the Population Register Centre.
Types of restrictions and their effects:
Non-disclosure for direct advertising purposes
No name or address information will be released for the following purposes: direct advertising, market research and opinion polls. However, information may be disclosed for example for a scientific survey.
Non-disclosure of contact detail
Contact details will not be released in the Population Register Centre's Address Service or other similar address and contact detail services that use data from the Population Information System.
Non-disclosure for customer register update
Information is not released to companies that are updating their customer registers using data from the Population Information System (e.g. magazine publishers). However, according to law the data can be released to banks and insurance companies even if a person has forbidden disclosure.
Non-disclosure for public registers
Information will not be released for purposes such as listings of former students at a given institute of education or those with a certain degree.
Non-disclosure for genealogical research
No information will be released for genealogical research purposes.
Non-disclosure for personal safety reasons
If a person has a justified reason to believe that their personal safety or that of a family member is in jeopardy, the local register office may, upon request, order that information relating to the person’s municipality of residence or address may not released from the Population Information System to parties other than public authorities. To issue such an order, the local register office will require a justified written request or at least a personal visit to the office. The first non-disclosure restriction may remain in force for a maximum of five years, after which it can be extended for two years at a time.
When an order of non-disclosure for personal safety reasons has been issued, the person’s address will in many cases not be released to the authorities either. The authorities to whom the person's contact details are disclosed will at the same time be informed of the order of non-disclosure for personal safety reasons. Similar provisions are included in the Act on the Openness of Government Authorities. However, under this act, the duty of non-disclosure only pertains to the authority from whom the person requested the order of non-disclosure.
Orders of non-disclosure are based on law
The disclosure of information from the Population Information System comes under the scope of the Population Information Act (661/2009). Every individual has the right to forbid the disclosure of their personal information from the Population Information System under Section 30 of the Personal Data Act (523/1999) for purposes such as direct advertising, market research, opinion polls, public registers or genealogical research. In addition, everyone has a right to forbid the disclosure of his or her contact details for use in a contact, address or other similar data service, and to forbid the disclosure of his or her personal information for the update of a customer register or another equitable register under Section 35 of the Population Information Act. According to Section 36 of the Population Information Act, an order of non-disclosure for personal safety reasons may be included in the Population Information System.
Despite the above restrictions, information will be disclosed to authorities such as Statistics Finland and the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, to the extent that is necessary for the execution of their statutory duties.
Other parties that you can notify of non-disclosure for direct marketing purposes:
Finnish Transport Safety Agency: Vehicle and driving licence register
The Finnish Direct Marketing Association: Robinson Lists