Finnish authorities did not infringe the religious rights of Jehova’s witnesses by labelling their data collection practices during house visits as illegal, the Strasbourg-based human rights court ruled after a decade-long back-and-forth.
The decision ended a long and complicated dispute of twists and turns.
On Tuesday, the Strasbourg-based court unanimously found that the Finnish decision that found collecting personal information illegal did not compromise the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ right to religious freedom.
“The Court found that the domestic authorities had correctly balanced the interests of the applicant community with the rights of individuals as regards their personal information, holding that obtaining consent had been necessary,” the European court wrote in a press release.
In 2013, the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman found the way Jehovah’s Witnesses collect personal information when visiting peoples’ homes to be illegal, noting that such information may constitute a register.
Yet, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses, such practices were merely a means to take notes and collect material for following encounters, stating that peoples’ privacy was not invaded.
The Helsinki Administrative Court agreed with the group and overturned the earlier verdict.
However, this was not the end of the saga.
In 2018, the Supreme Administrative Court found gathering personal information illegal due to permission to collect not being requested.
The case then went on to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which can rule when all other legal avenues have been exhausted.
(Pekka Vänttinen | EURACTIV.com)
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