Documents containing personal identity codes and passport copies in Virre Information Service
The Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has carried out an investigation which showed that Trade Register documents containing personal identity codes and passport copies were available for purchase in the Virre Information Service. Said documents have now been encrypted and can no longer be purchased in Virre.
The PRH’s systems have not been subjected to a data breach, and the case is not a technical error.
We have identified 3,495 purchases related to notifications in which the documents erroneously included personal identity codes and passport copies as public information.
It was not possible for buyers of the documents to know the contents of the documents content in advance.
We have published an announcement on the matter and informed the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman. Read more in our customer announcement.
We apologise for this inconvenience.
Persons whose personal identity code or passport details were available for purchase in Virre
We have published instructions to follow if you suspect or know that documents containing your personal identity code or passport details were available for purchase in Virre. Read more in the instructions for persons whose details erroneously were available for purchase in Virre.
Companies whose notifications the incident concerns
The companies submitted the notifications containing these documents to the Finnish Trade Register between November 2014 and the beginning of December 2021.
We have sent a letter to these companies and asked them to pay attention to the content of their Trade Register notifications in the future.
Be careful with your personal data
Companies are responsible for the notifications they file and the contents in them.
According to the Trade Register instructions, personal identity codes and sensitive personal details must not be filed unless specifically requested and for a requested section.
In notifications filed on paper, personal identity codes must be filed on a separate personal data form intended only for authority use. The details filed on the personal data form are always secret.
Read more about personal data in the Finnish Trade Register.