Complaints and investigation requests

Anyone who considers that their rights have been infringed in the course of intelligence activities or such operations have otherwise broken the law can file a complaint to the Intelligence Ombudsman in matters falling under the Ombudsman’s powers of oversight.

The Intelligence Ombudsman can only investigate complaints about activities falling under the Ombudsman’s authority of oversight. The Intelligence Ombudsman supervises the intelligence activities of the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service and the military intelligence authorities as well as the other operations of the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service. The processing of personal data by the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service and the military intelligence authorities is supervised by the Data Protection Ombudsman. If the activities subject to the complaint are not related to intelligence activities, the complaint should possibly be addressed to another authority instead, such as the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

A person subjected to intelligence gathering or who suspects that they have been subjected to intelligence gathering can ask the Intelligence Ombudsman to investigate the lawfulness of the use of such methods.

Institution of a matter

You must make your complaint or investigation request in writing. It must indicate the name and contact details of the complainant or person making the investigation request. Anonymous messages will not be processed as complaints, but information in such messages may be taken into account when targeting the Intelligence Ombudsman’s supervision activities. The contact details are needed in case additional information or a rejoinder is needed, as well as for delivering the decision made regarding the complaint or investigation request.

A complaint should describe as precisely as possible:
       ▪ the authority whose practices the complaint involves;
       ▪ the activity;
       ▪ the time and date of the activity; and
       ▪ a justification of why the complainant considers the authority to have violated the law.

An investigation request should describe as precisely as possible:
       ▪ the authority whose intelligence gathering the person making the investigation request has 
         been or is suspected to have been subject;
       ▪ a description of how the intelligence gathering method was employed; and
       ▪ the time and date of the intelligence gathering.

Complaints and investigation requests can be sent by post to the address Intelligence Ombudsman, P.O. Box 800, 00531 Helsinki, Finland, or by email to tiedusteluvalvonta(at)om.fi. If the complaint or investigation request contains confidential or sensitive information, you can send it as an encrypted message via the Ministry of Justice’s secure email service. Please read the instructions for sending secure email before using the service. 

The processing of a complaint or investigation request is free of charge.

Stages of processing

Admission for investigation

The Intelligence Ombudsman will investigate a complaint falling under the Ombudsman’s purview if there is cause to suspect that the law has been broken in the intelligence activity or if the Ombudsman considers it necessary for some other reason. 

The preliminary assessment of the grounds for a complaint is usually made on the basis of the information included in the letter of complaint. If necessary, additional information can be requested from the complainant or obtained from the authority subject to supervision in order to assess the justification of the complaint.

The Intelligence Ombudsman may transfer a complaint falling outside its purview to the competent authority. If a complaint falls under the Intelligence Ombudsman’s purview as such, but another authority would be better suited for its processing, the Ombudsman may transfer the matter to the authority in question.

The processing of an investigation request begins with obtaining information from the authority subject to supervision to determine whether the person who filed the investigation request has been subjected to an intelligence gathering method.

Investigation

When a complaint is admitted for investigation, the Intelligence Ombudsman acquires the information and reports deemed necessary. The same applies to an investigation request if it turns out that the person who filed it has actually been subjected to an intelligence gathering method. Before deciding on a complaint or investigation request, the Intelligence Ombudsman affords the supervised authority the opportunity to be heard on the matter if there is reason to believe that there may be grounds for criticising the supervised authority’s conduct. The complainant or person who filed the investigation request may be given the opportunity to issue a rejoinder to the authority’s report.

Resolution

A written decision is issued on the complaint or investigation request and delivered to the complainant or person who made the investigation request.

The publicity of intelligence activities and parties’ right of access are subject to the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, and the parties’ right of access is also provided for in specific provisions in the intelligence legislation. In connection with the processing or decision-making of a complaint or investigation request, the Intelligence Ombudsman may only disclose to the complainant or the person who made the investigation request information to which they are entitled by virtue of the publicity of the information or the parties’ right of access. 

A decision issued on a complaint or investigation request is not subject to appeal.