Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) threatened to leave Finland, unless law preventing them to snoop thorough employee email correspondence is not overturned, the Helsingin Sanomat (HS) reported this morning.
An ammendment to the law protecting citizen's privacy in electronic correspondence, known locally as Lex Nokia or 'the snooping law', will be voted on in the Finnish parlament within weeks. The law would permit companies to examine their employees' and according to HS, libraries, schools, colleges and appartment complexes to spy on their customer's email if they suspected wrongdoing inside their network.
The affair began as an alledged case of industrial espionage when a Nokia employee attending the 2005 Cannes electronics fair noticed Nokia technology, just being unveilled at the fair, being presented in a network adapter by Chinese manufacturer Huawein. To hunt down the leak inside its company Nokia demanded existing Finnish privacy laws be overturned or it would close its home operations completely, thereby effectively blackmailing the Finnish government for aprx. 1,3 billon Euro tax income and 16 000 local jobs. (Source HS)
Nokia accounted for a third of the market capitalization of the Helsinki Stock Exchange (OMX Helsinki) in 2007. In 2004 Nokia's share of Finland's GDP was 3.5% and accounted for one quarter of Finland's exports in 2003. In 2006 Nokia's revenue exceeded the state budget of Finland. (Wiki)
Pictured: Nokia 'Prototype X-2000'
4 comments:
Nokia is dangerous for the european market. They trick governments (e.g. finnland. or germany when stealing 30M€ from Bochum.)
but since their products are rubbish compared to the iPhone, pre or G1 they'll die anyways.
I stopped buying Nokia products some years ago and just can encourage anyone else to do it too.
Good thery should leave. What does Finland bring to the table anyways? Nothing!
RT
www.internet-privacy.us.tc
Stand up for your rights.
Stop buying crap from the abusers.
Simple solution - Nationalize Nokia and we can all go back to only the government spying on us and rest peacefully in the secure knowledge that want only what is best for the people
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