Data privacy notice - Communications about doctoral dissertations

Data controller

University of Oulu

Pentti Kaiterankatu 1

P. O. Box 8000, 90014 OULU

Units in charge of the processing:

University of Oulu, Communications, marketing and public affairs

Communications Director Marja Jokinen, e-mail address: viestinta(at)oulu.fi

Oulu University Library

Library Director Minna Abrahamsson-Sipponen, e-mail: kirjasto(at)oulu.fi



University Data Protection Officer: dpo(at)oulu.fi

Purpose of processing personal data and legal basis for processing personal data

Your personal data is being processed to communicate the doctoral dissertation.

The University of Oulu fulfils the statutory task provided for in Section 2 of the Universities Act, based on the public interest, when it engages in research, teaching and social interaction.

According to Section 20 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, the university must promote the openness of its activities and see to it that the information that is essential to the general public’s access to information is available.

The university communicates the upcoming doctoral dissertations on its website, and a link to the upcoming dissertations is also available on the university’s intranet service. In addition, the media is informed of doctoral dissertations. For the purposes of communication, the doctoral candidate must fill in an online form and send the notification no later than fourteen days before the thesis defence. The online form is used in the Oulu.fi online service.

University Communications formulates a press release based on the description provided on the online form and distributes it to the media approximately one week before the thesis defence. A press release is drawn up and distributed if the dissertation and its description contain interesting information relevant to the media and the general public or a special field and the matter can be presented in an easily accessible manner.

Doctoral dissertations are also selectively communicated on the university’s Twitter account.

Agent Metadata Service

Using data from the online form, Oulu University Library prepares an authority record, which is stored in the Asteri database maintained by the National Library when describing the doctoral dissertation for the National Bibliography. The processing of personal data is based on Article 6(1e) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation: processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

The National Library is the controller of the Asteri database. See the National Library’s privacy statement.

Personal data to be processed

The data subject fills in the announcement of the public defence of doctoral dissertation in a form asking

• name of the candidate
• current degree
• faculty and unit
• date and place of birth
• dates and places of completion of previous degrees
• current job and position
• phone number of the unit
• contact information
• e-mail address of the sender of the form
• consent of the data subject for giving the contact information to the media
• title of the dissertation
• title of the dissertation in plain language
• description of the dissertation in plain language
• time and place of the thesis defence and remote link to the thesis defence
• language of thesis defence
• information on the opponent and custos (name, title, unit)
• subject of the study
• publication address of the dissertation
• additional information

On the basis of the information on the submitted form, the University Communications publishes the following information on the dissertation in the Oulu.fi online service:

• name of the candidate
• current degree
• faculty and unit
• title of the dissertation
• title of the dissertation in plain language
• description of the dissertation in plain language
• time and place of the thesis defence
• information on the opponent and the custos
• subject of the study
• publication address of the dissertation
• remote link to the thesis defence

The aforementioned information published in the Oulu.fi online service is forwarded to the media. In addition, it is hoped that all doctoral candidates send a digital photo of themselves to viestinta@oulu.fi. The photo is forwarded to the media along with the release, and the media can publish it when reporting on the dissertation. The contact details of the doctoral candidates are communicated to the media if the doctoral candidates have given their consent.

Oulu University Library stores the following information on the online form about the author of the dissertation in the Asteri database of the National Library:

• Name(s) of the candidate (variations of the name)
• Profession and field (subject of study), associated community (faculty/unit)
• degrees and titles
• date and place of birth (country and/or place related to the person)
• in addition, the library collects data from public sources (e.g. ORCID identifier) and stores it in the Asteri database.

Recipients or categories of recipients of personal data

We transfer personal data within the organisation of the University of Oulu and only to the extent necessary for the communication of the thesis defence. Personal data are processed by the Unit for Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs of the University of Oulu and other units that use the information about the dissertation.

The press release about the doctoral dissertation is accompanied by the contact information provided by the doctoral candidate, if the doctoral candidate has separately given consent to that.

Press releases about doctoral dissertations are distributed to, for instance, national and regional newspapers, YLE, local radio and TV channels, local newspapers in Northern Finland and some specialist magazines, depending on the scientific field of the dissertation (e.g. Tiede, Tekniikka & Talous, Mediuutiset and Lääkärilehti).

One or two days before the doctoral defence, Kaleva newspaper usually publishes a short news report on every doctoral candidate and thesis defence taking place at the University of Oulu. The University Communications sends the information and photos to Kaleva on the basis of the material submitted by the doctoral candidate.

If the candidate wants other media (e.g. a magazine or another local newspaper in the region) to be informed of the dissertation, this can be reported in the Additional information section of the online form.

The press releases about doctoral dissertations sent to wider media distribution are also published on the STT info website (www.sttinfo.fi).

Using data from the online form, Oulu University Library prepares an authority record, which is stored in the Asteri database of the National Library. Asteri is a name or agent database maintained by the National Library, which describes the agents included in the publication data. The authorised or standard name forms in Asteri collect different name forms together (e.g. forms in different languages or different spellings), and they also help to distinguish between persons or organisations with the same name. The agent data contained in the Asteri database can be retrieved as open data in the Finto service.

The University of Oulu discloses personal data to third parties only to the extent that third parties need it for the purposes of the communication requested by the controller.

Data transfers

The personal data will not be transferred outside the EU or EEA. Media releases are available on the STT info -service. Information on thesis defences can be found on the university Oulu.fi web service.

Data storage time

Your personal data is being processed to communicate the doctoral dissertation. The University of Oulu fulfils the statutory task provided for in Section 2 of the Universities Act, based on the public interest, when it engages in research, teaching and social interaction. According to Section 20 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, the university must promote the openness of its activities and see to it that the information that is essential to the general public’s access to information is available.

The data will be retained for the time necessary for the purpose and will not be used for any other purpose.

The doctoral dissertation notifications are stored in the online service of the University of Oulu for at least two years, after which the data can be deleted upon request or if the university considers that the storage of the data is no longer appropriate due to the purpose of the processing. If the data in the doctoral dissertation notification is requested to be deleted, the information about the thesis defence will also be removed from the university’s online service.

Data subject rights

You have the following rights as a data subject:

• Right to access your data
• Right to have inaccurate data corrected (make sure to keep your contact information up to date)
• In certain situations, the right to have data erased ("right to be forgotten")
• In certain situations, the right to restriction of processing
• In certain situations, the right to object to processing
• In certain situations, the right to have data transferred from one system to another if the processing is based on consent or agreement and is performed automatically.

Please note that the applicability and scope of your above-mentioned rights will be specified on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, depending on e.g. the grounds for processing the data, and that you do not have the above-mentioned rights in all cases.

If you have any questions about your rights, you can communicate with the University's Data Privacy Officer or the contact person of the responsible unit.



If you want to use the above-mentioned rights, please send a request to the University’s registry office: kirjaamo(at)oulu.fi, where you will get the necessary additional instructions.

Right of appeal to the supervisory authority

In addition to the rights mentioned above, you have the right to file a complaint about the processing of your personal data with the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman as the supervisory authority. The contact details and opening hours can be found on the website of the Data Protection Ombudsman.

General description of the technical and organisational protection measures

The University as the Data Controller uses appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against damage or loss of personal data.