In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, the controller has sent a communication of a personal data breach to the data subject to all individuals receiving a wrong passport due to an error in the passport process.
The National Police Board regrets the passport incident and the inappropriate procedure relating to the processing of personal data.
The error affected 545 individuals when some of the envelopes sent for delivery on 16 September 2022 contained a passport belonging to someone other than the addressee. The error was due to mailing machine automation which was not in use as a result of human error. The police communicated the incident on 20 September 2022.
A total of 151 passports had already been collected before collection of the remaining passports in the batch of 545 concerned was prevented.
All passports that went to the wrong people have been invalidated
“All the passports affected have been returned to the passport manufacturer. To minimise any attempts at misuse, all the passports in the batch concerned have been invalidated and will be destroyed. In addition, the individuals affected have been issued with new passports,” says Hanna Piipponen, Senior Officer at the National Police Board.
According to Piiponen, measures were taken to minimise the damage caused as soon as the incident and its extent became clear.
“As well as this, changes have now been made to the security measures in the passport delivery process to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in future,” Hanna Piipponen says.
