Third-Party Data Leaks and Privacy Compliance on Finnish Government Websites




Rajapaksha, Sammani; Heino, Timi; Rauti, Sampsa; Puhtila, Panu; Leppänen, Ville

Rocha, Alvaro; Adeli, Hojjat; Poniszewska-Maranda, Aneta; Moreira, Fernando; Bianchi, Isaias

World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

PublisherSpringer Nature Switzerland

2025

 Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Emerging Trends in Information Systems and Technologies : WorldCIST 2025. Volume 1

1514

259

268

978-3-031-97118-1

978-3-031-97119-8

2367-3370

2367-3389

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97119-8_19

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97119-8_19



As web-based services become more popular and common in handling everyday tasks online, public sector websites have also become a very important part of essential digital services. On crucial websites like government websites, where sensitive personal data may be processed, privacy issues become increasingly important. In this study, we examine third party services used in 63 Finnish government websites, and what personal data is potentially leaking to these third parties. We also study adequacy of consent mechanisms on these websites and assess how well they inform the users on these data transfers. Our findings show that while the number of third parties and data leaks is relatively low, the websites still have privacy issues like insufficient consent mechanisms, dark patterns, and informing users inadequately about data processing activities.



This research has been funded by Academy of Finland project 327397, IDA – Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture.


Last updated on 26/01/2026 12:49:50 PM