Finland To Allow E-mail Snooping

The Finnish Parliament has passed the “Lex Nokia Law“, a controversial new set of rules that give employers to monitor their employees’ e-mails if it is believed they are engaging in illegal or deviant behavior.

The bill was dubbed the “Lex Nokia Law” because it was rumored that Finnish cellphone giant Nokia would have moved its operations out of the country if the bill did not pass. Nokia has denied the rumors.

The new law allows libraries, schools and telecom companies which provide information networks to monitor what people are doing on their computers. While the boss cannot actually read an email, they can check where the email is being sent and if there are any attachments. This is apparently meant to uncover industrial espionage.

Many electronic rights activists and legal experts have openly criticized the law, saying its parameters are vague and is unlikely to prevent company secrets from being passed along. Finnish President Tarja Halonen still needs to sign the bill into law, and is being passionately lobbied by Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI), a group that defends people’s electronic rights.

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