henkilörekisterissä

Henkilörekisterissä means that an individual’s personal data is stored in a personal data register, typically maintained by a public authority or a private organization for defined purposes. The term comes from the Finnish words henkilöt (person) and rekisteri (register), with the inessive suffix -ssä indicating “in.” In everyday usage, it describes the status of being included in a register rather than a single document.

Personal data registers (henkilörekisterit) are used across public and private sectors for administration, social services, health care, education, taxation, employment, and electoral processes. A register may contain identifiers (such as name, date of birth, national identification numbers), contact details, demographic information, professional data, health data, or other data necessary for the register’s purpose. Access to data in a register is typically restricted to authorized personnel and processes, with controls to protect privacy.

Legally, processing of personal data in registers is governed by EU GDPR and Finland’s national data protection laws. Data controllers determine purposes and legal bases for processing, and must observe principles such as data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, and appropriate security. Data subjects have rights to access their data, rectify inaccuracies, request erasure, restrict processing, object to processing, and obtain data portability, subject to applicable exemptions.

Examples include a municipality’s citizen database, a hospital patient register, a school pupil register, or a company customer register. The concept of being in a personal register emphasizes the data’s structured storage and controlled processing rather than the existence of a single document.