Processing of personal data: Export promotion

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs may process information on companies and their employees when it supports Finnish businesses in expanding into international markets.

Service description: export promotion

Our statutory duties include helping Finnish businesses enter international markets and attracting investment to Finland. We also carry out trade promotion missions, from business gatherings to high‑level visits abroad.

If you represent a company, you can contact the Team Finland network (the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Business Finland, Finnvera and the Economic Development Centres) through a Team Finland contact request. The information you provide will be directed to the right Team Finland member through KasvuCRM, a customer relationship management (CRM) system owned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The joint controllers use the system to manage customer relations and marketing for current and potential clients in order to promote their business.

Read more:

• Trade promotion services of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• KasvuCRM and joint controllers

Data we collect about you for export promotion

To promote exports, we may use publicly available information about your company and, when required by law, non-disclosable information. If you act as your company’s contact person or responsible officer, or if you participate in trade missions or events, we may process the following personal data on a case‑by‑case basis:

• Identification data: name, country of residence, domicile, street address, email address, phone number, job title and role in the company. For self-employed persons: business name and business ID
• Additional information: nickname, name in the native language, address and job title, country of employment, branch of industry, capital investment profile, category of expertise, job description, other description
• Information on the business advisory services or other services you have received
• Changes to the above-mentioned data

Our processing may also include other notes related to you or to a potential customer relationship, and any other information we need to maintain good customer relations. These may include information about events you have attended or will attend, contact requests you have made or services you have ordered, including details of service delivery and invoicing.

We store personal data collected for export promotion for up to five years from the last time it was used to provide a service. However, we do not delete your data if we need it to carry out our statutory duties or if your matter is still ongoing.

Why we process your data

We process your personal data because the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Finland’s diplomatic and consular missions abroad have statutory duties that require it. We also process data to carry out tasks in the public interest. Our processing is based on Article 6, paragraph 1, points c and e of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU 2016/679).

Provisions on the tasks of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Finland's missions abroad are laid down in, for example:

• Act on the Foreign Service (204/2000)
• Government Decree on the Administration of the Foreign Service (256/2000)
• Government Decree on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (1171/2005)
• Act on the Customer Information System for Trade Promotion Services (293/2017)

Transfer of personal data

As a rule, we do not disclose personal data. However, we may disclose your personal data to the authorities requesting it under the Act on the Openness of Government Activities. Data and documents are public unless an act expressly states they are non-disclosable.

Under the Act on the Customer Information System for Trade Promotion Services (293/2017), personal data may be shared with the joint controllers and with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Finnish Food Authority.

As a rule, we do not transfer personal data outside the European Union or the European Economic Area. However, when necessary for providing trade promotion services, data may be transferred, with some restrictions and in compliance with and within the limits of data protection legislation, to Business Finland’s subsidiaries or staff working in its network abroad. Names of business delegation participants may also be shared with the trade mission host and the businesses hosting visits as part of the programme in the target market.