SFS Finnish Standards’ Privacy Policy – Publicly available standards

1. Personal data collected

When you register as a user of the SFS web service, SFS collects and processes the information necessary for registration, such as your user username, name and e-mail address.

SFS also collects analytics data on how its websites and services are used. These are described in more detail below.

The above information is mainly obtained by SFS from you when you register as a user of the SFS web service. Online analytics data is collected through the analytics service as described in more detail below.

2. Purpose and legal basis for the collection of personal data

SFS will make certain standards available to you on request. SFS processes the information collected in connection with your registration on the basis of its legitimate interest to process your request to gain access to a particular standard.

SFS may also process your data to pursue its legitimate interests to defend itself against legal claims or to make such claims, if necessary.

Your personal data will not be used for automated decision-making or profiling within the meaning of the law.

3. Disclosure and transfer of your personal data

As a general rule, SFS will not disclose information about you to others. However, SFS uses service providers to collect and process the above information. Such service providers may include companies from which SFS purchases IT services such as server space, data centre services or similar services. SFS also uses an external service provider to send direct marketing. These technical service providers act data processors on behalf of SFS. The contracts between SFS and these service providers ensure the secure processing of your personal data also in these situations.

You can contact SFS if you have questions about how your data is disclosed or transferred to others.

4. Cookies and web analytics

SFS uses cookies on its website. Cookies are small data files that are transferred to your computer when you access the website. Cookies are stored in the files used by your browser. Some cookies are used for the duration of your browsing session, others for longer.

Cookies can be divided into four categories: essential, functional, analytical and marketing cookies. Some cookies are necessary for the technical functioning of the site. These cookies do not collect any information about the user that could be used for marketing or analytics purposes.

Functional cookies, on the other hand, improve the functioning of the site, for example by enabling the chat-bot to work. Analytical cookies collect anonymous data and statistics for the development of the site. Marketing cookies can be used, for example, to target advertising to a website user. In addition, the site may have social media plug-ins, for example, which you can use when you are logged in to your sometime account.

For cookies that are not technically necessary, SFS will ask for your consent to the use of cookies. You can withdraw your consent at any time, but this does not affect the legality of past processing activities.

The web analytics services used by SFS collect information about how SFS websites and services are used, what content the user views, how the user navigates between pages, where and how the user arrived at the SFS service, whether the user has visited the page or service before, the user’s browser settings and similar information. In some circumstances, this information may be personally identifiable. Information may also be collected through the use of cookies.

Currently, SFS uses the following analytical services:

• Google Analytics. SFS uses Google Analytics for the purposes set out above. You can read more about the personal data collected by the service here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
• Matomo. SFS uses the cookie-free Matomo service for its online shop (sales.sfs.fi). The service does not use tracking cookies, the information is used only for internal SFS analytics purposes and is not shared or combined with any other data, visitors are not tracked on different websites and visitors to the site are not identified. You can read more about the service’s privacy policy here: https://matomo.org/privacy/.

You can find more detailed information about the cookies used on the SFS website and the cookies used by the SFS online shop.

5. International disclosures or transfers of personal data

As a general rule, SFS will not disclose or transfer your personal data outside the EU/EEA. However, in certain limited circumstances, SFS may disclose or transfer your personal data to an entity located in a so-called third country outside the EU/EEA whose local law does not ensure a level of data protection equivalent to that of the EU. For example, some of the technical service providers and web analytics services used by SFS mentioned above may store or process your personal data in such a third country.

In these situations, SFS generally enters into an agreement with the party concerned in accordance with the so-called standard contractual clauses of the European Commission to ensure the secure processing of data also in third countries. However, if the disclosure or transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract that SFS has with or for your benefit, or if another legal derogation applies, SFS may not use the standard contractual clauses.

SFS will also ensure that data is otherwise processed securely and lawfully abroad. SFS will provide more detailed information on international data transfers, if needed.

6. Retention period of your personal data

SFS will retain the personal data collected in connection with your registration for as long as you have a valid user account for the SFS web service. You can request to have your user account deleted at any time.

SFS will retain information about your marketing consent until you change your consent. User-specific web analytics data will be retained for a maximum of 38 months from the date of collection.

In addition, SFS may retain records relating to legal claims for a longer period than the above, where applicable, if SFS has reasonable grounds to suspect that they are necessary for possible future litigation or similar.

At the end of the retention periods described above, your personal data will either be deleted or made anonymous so that it is no longer identifiable.

7. Your rights under data protection law

Your rights under applicable data protection law in relation to your personal data referred to above include:

(a) to access the personal data that SFS holds about you and, in certain circumstances, to request a copy of your data or the transfer of your data to another system;
(b) request the correction of incorrect or incomplete data;
(c) request the removal of outdated or unnecessary data from the SFS registers;
(d) request the temporary restriction of the processing of your data pending the resolution of any other claim relating to your data;
(e) object to the use of your data for direct marketing or, where your particular personal situation so requires, to the use of your data based on the legitimate interests of SFS.

In situations where SFS processes your personal data on the basis of your consent, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. However, this does not affect the lawfulness of any action taken prior to the withdrawal of consent.

If you are dissatisfied with the way SFS has handled your personal data, you can also lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authorities. In Finland, this is the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman (see www.tietosuoja.fi).

8. Contacts

For any questions regarding this privacy statement or your personal data, you can contact SFS using the following contact details:

SFS Suomen Standardit ry
Malminkatu 34, 00100 Helsinki
P.O. Box 130, 00101 Helsinki
Tel: 09 149 9331
E-mail: standardeista@sfs.fi

9. Changes

SFS may update this document from time to time. Where necessary, material changes will be communicated separately.

The effective date of this version of the privacy policy is 27.6.2024.