Processing of personal data in social media
In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, public authorities have a duty to promote an individual’s opportunities to participate in societal activity. The Tax Administration must implement transparency and produce and provide information for the public by means of communication. A specific task of the Tax Administration is to promote correct and uniform taxation and improve the Tax Administration's service ability. To achieve this, the Tax Administration uses social media channels.
Natural persons and organisations can communicate with the Tax Administration through social media channels. The social media channels used by the Tax Administration are:
- X (former Twitter)
- Tiktok
- Threads
- Bluesky
- Youtube
The purpose of processing personal data is to guide customers and give information about the Tax Administration's activities by communicating and providing customer service on social media platforms, for example, in accordance with the Tax Administration's powers. The basis of the processing of personal data is the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679), Article 6 (1) (e). The Tax Administration has an obligation under § 14, subsection 4 of the Constitution of Finland to promote an individual’s opportunities of participating in societal activity, an obligation under § 20 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999) to produce and disseminate information on their activities, and an obligation under § 2 of the act on the Tax Administration (Laki Verohallinnosta 503/2010) to promote the implementation of correct and uniform taxation. Data processing transactions include any comments made by customers, responding to such comments, and participating in discussions.
The personal data processed on social media platforms includes the following:
- name data used by the customer
- contact data used by the customer
- user ID used by the customer
- the customer’s social media publications
The Tax Administration uses the Emplifi service to process personal data. Emplifi is used to analyse the functionality of social media content and to manage the account content, such as messages and comments. Emplifi processes only such personal data that the user has defined as public in the social media channel in question. Read more about Emplifi’s information security.
The Tax Administration complies with each social media platform’s data protection practices that may affect the processing of personal data on these platforms. Data protection practices are found on each social media platform.
The Tax Administration uses the tools provided by platforms to target its communication. The tools include demographic data, location data and information on the objects of interest. The Tax Administration does not combine any personal data to target a message, nor does it seek to influence the user's views or choices. The purpose of targeted communication is to offer relevant and interesting content to customers, and to improve the efficiency of tax-related communication.
Reports on targeted communication contain general demographic data, and information on where the message was presented and how the users interacted with the message. When targeting communication to users, the Tax Administration cooperates with social media service providers. For the data subject, this means that the Tax Administration defines the target audience's parameters and the service provider then uses the users’ personal data to target the communication in accordance with the parameters set by the Tax Administration. Users can manage the targeting settings themselves on each platform. The Tax Administration and the social media service provider are joint controllers regarding the processing measures that relate to the targeting of communication.
Personal data is processed only for as long as necessary for purposes of communication, or until the user is no longer a member or follower in social media channels. The processing duration is based on the processing times defined by social media service providers in their services.
The Tax Administration does not transfer personal data to countries outside the EU or the EEA. The social media platforms may have servers located outside the EU or the EEA, in which case data is transferred in accordance with the platform's own data protection practices.
As regards the enforcement of the data subject’s rights, you can contact the Tax Administration or the social media platform provider.