Cookies on the EU-healthcare.fi website have collected visitor data without the visitor’s consent

9.9.2022

Some cookies on the EU-healthcare.fi website have collected visitor data even without the visitor’s consent. The visitor’s consent to the use of cookies was requested via the cookie banner, but there was an error in the cookie banner settings. The cookie banner settings were corrected on 30 August 2022.


Some cookies used on the EU-healthcare.fi website between 25 April and 30 August 2022 collected visitor data without appropriate consent. The site had about 123,000 visitors during that period.

The cookies were used to track, for example, visitors’ navigation on the site and the results of advertising directing to the site. Similar cookies are commonly used on various websites. The EU General Data Protection Regulation requires that their use is subject to consent.

The EU-healthcare.fi website uses a cookie banner allowing the visitor to choose which cookies are allowed. However, the cookie banner had an erroneous default setting due to which the application that tracks visitor data already collected data before consent was given.

“We are very sorry about this. We will investigate the matter thoroughly and monitor our cookie process even more carefully in the future,” says Matias Kainu, Head Of Unit for the Contact Point for Cross-Border Health Care, maintaining the website.

The incident is treated as a data security breach, and it has been reported to the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman.

Further information: Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare, yhteyspiste@kela.fi

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