Data protection and cookies

The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS) processes personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and Council, as well as national legislation on data protection. This legislation only applies to the data of living persons.

The purpose of SLS is to preserve, explore and disseminate information about Swedish culture and heritage in Finland. Its mission also includes supporting research on the Swedish language and literature in Finland and promoting domestic literary activities through prizes and scholarships. All processing of personal data within SLS takes place to promote these purposes in some way. SLS also processes personal data to review and develop SLS’s activities and to comply with legislative requirements.

The processing must also have a legal basis. For SLS, these legal grounds may be consent, contract, legal obligation incumbent on SLS, performance of a task in the public interest by SLS and the legitimate interest of SLS or a third party. Only the personal data necessary for the purpose is processed.

The processing of personal data involved in SLS’s publications is subject to the legal provisions for safeguarding the freedom of expression and information contained in the national legislation on data protection.

There are various reasons why SLS processes your personal data. The most common reasons are that you are a member or elected representative of SLS, that you have applied for or received a scholarship, grant or award from SLS, that you are a customer of SLS’s archives, that you are an informant in a collection or participant in research conducted by SLS, that you are a participant in a seminar or other event, that you want your works to be published by SLS, that you have purchased an  SLS publication, that you have applied for a job at SLS, been employed by SLS or received a fee, that you or your family have applied for or rented accommodation from SLS, that you are a rights holder of material in SLS’s archives and publications or if you have contacted or cooperated with SLS for any other reason. Most of this information is collected by SLS directly from you. In some cases, SLS also collects information from other sources.

One of the central activities of SLS is archiving. It processes a wide range of personal data in research and heritage materials that are collected, preserved and disseminated for public archival purposes. SLS’s archiving activities are a task of public interest and the SLS archives are also authorised to process special categories of personal data. The material includes documents, registers, photographs, audio and video recordings and digital material and their metadata. The archive material has been obtained by SLS from private individuals and organisations, as well as collected by SLS itself.

The personal data SLS processes may include the following:

  • Contact information such as name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Personal numbers are processed when required by tax legislation and other legislation.
  • Bank and other financial information needed to make payments or invoices.
  • Personal data obtained when you visit the SLS archive or order material from the SLS archive.
  • Personal data collected when you are an informant in a survey or participant in research conducted by SLS.
  • Personal data collected when you apply for or are awarded a grant, subsidy or rental accommodation.
  • Information about you, including photography, video and audio recordings, collected or obtained when you participate in seminars and other events.
  • Personal data needed for employment, for paid assignments or if you apply for a job with SLS or when SLS negotiates and enters into an agreement with you.
  • Personal data collected in connection with SLS investigating and registering rights holders to material in the SLS archives and publications.
  • Information about how you use the SLS websites, in order to improve their user-friendliness, for example through cookies and plug-ins that improve the user experience. For more information, see the heading “Use of cookies”.

To protect SLS premises and collections, video surveillance and other technical monitoring is used, which also involves the processing of personal data.

SLS ensures that the processing of personal data is protected by appropriate technical and organisational measures. These measures shall ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk represented by the processing. The security aspects should include confidentiality, accuracy and availability as well as adequate technical protection. For example, only an authorised person has access to the data, the data is encrypted, it is stored in specially protected areas and a copy of the processing is made.

The personal data included in the SLS archive is mainly open to researchers and other interested parties in the SLS customer areas, to the extent that this is possible according to the law, donation conditions and the SLS archive rules. In accordance with its public interest mission, SLS’s archive may also make publicly available archival material and metadata containing personal data, to the extent possible under the law, the terms of donation and the SLS archive rules.

Your data may also be disclosed to SLS’s partners, to suppliers and other processors of personal data or to other parties who need access to them as a result of an agreement between SLS and you, due to a task in the public interest or due to a legal obligation that SLS has. SLS cooperates with other organisations that distribute scholarships and grants and within the framework of this cooperation, SLS discloses and receives personal data.

When transferring to another party, SLS takes all reasonable legal, organisational and technical measures that may be required to protect your personal data appropriately.

SLS uses your personal data only as long as SLS needs it for the given purpose, or as long as required by law.

When the personal data is no longer needed, it will either be deleted or archived in the SLS archive, if there is a basis for archiving.

Material in the SLS archive is essentially saved in perpetuity.

SLS does not generally transfer personal data to third countries outside the EU/EEA.

However, if this happens in any case, SLS takes all reasonable legal, organisational and technical measures necessary to achieve an adequate level of protection for your personal data.

We use cookies and plug-ins to improve the user experience. Some are necessary for the functioning of the service and are activated automatically. We pass on information about your use of our website to the analytics companies we work with.

Necessary cookies

We use certain technical cookies that are necessary for the functioning of the website and to ensure information security. Technical cookies are always placed regardless of the browser’s cookie settings. The cookies are only used for actions that are necessary for the functioning of the website and the web service.

You can control non-essential cookies on our websites or in your browser settings. Blocking cookies may affect the user experience on the website.

Functional cookies

Functional cookies help perform certain functions such as sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party functions.

Functional cookies can be allowed or blocked on our websites.

Analytics cookies

Analytics cookies collect general statistical data on the use of the website. The data is used for quality control and to develop the online service. Such data includes, for example, page views, visits to the website, time of day and browser and operating system.

We use the analytics  service Matomo to collect statistics. Read more about the analytics service.

Analytics cookies may be allowed or blocked on our websites.

Performance cookies

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indices of the website that help deliver a better user experience for you as a visitor.

Performance cookies may be allowed or blocked on our websites.

Third-party cookies

Some of the websites contain embedded third-party applications, such as social media feeds or videos. When the page is loaded, these applications may place cookies in the visitor’s browser. The cookies transmit information about the download of the page and the address of the page to a third party.

Third-party cookies may be allowed or blocked on our websites.

Other cookies

Other uncategorised cookies are those that are analysed and have not yet been classified into a category.

Uncategorised cookies can be allowed or blocked on our websites.

You can change your cookie settings here:

The rights of the data subject are set out in the GDPR and national legislation on data protection. These rights are limited under national data protection legislation with regard to the processing of personal data in the SLS archives and publications.

If you have questions about how SLS handles data protection and processes your personal data, you can send them to dataskydd@sls.fi or by post to:

Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
Data protection
PO BOX 158
00171 HELSINKI