Consent and denial of consent to share social services client data

When you give your consent to the sharing of social services client data, your data will be available to professionals who provide your care. You can limit the consent you have given by setting up denials of consent.

It is important that social welfare service professionals have an up-to-date understanding of your situation. When you give your consent for service providers to share your patient data with each other, your data will be available for use, for example, in another wellbeing services county when needed.

On this page you can learn

Social services client data are not yet shared in the Kanta Services

Before social services client data can be shared between service providers, they must make the necessary changes to their information systems. For example, if you have moved from one place to another, you can ask the professional dealing with your affairs whether they can retrieve your data recorded in another wellbeing services county directly from the Kanta Services.

What is affected by consenting to share one’s data?

When you give your consent to service providers to share your data with each other, it can make it easier and faster to manage your affairs. Once you have given your consent to share your data, it may be shared between, for example,

  • public and private social welfare service providers
  • different wellbeing services counties.

Professionals may only view your client data if it is necessary in order to manage your affairs. The use of data always requires an ongoing client relationship or other legitimate reason to process your affairs.

Social welfare service professionals can retrieve your data from the Kanta Services once the necessary changes have been made to their information systems. If you give your consent now, you will ensure that your data is available to professionals as soon as the changes are completed.

When can social welfare service data be used without consent to share it?

In some situations, a service provider may disclose your client data recorded in social welfare services to another service provider, even if you have not given your consent or have set up denials of consent to share your data. This includes the following situations:

If you are receiving social welfare services provided by a private service provider, for example, through a voucher issued by a wellbeing services county or as an outsourced service, the wellbeing services county and the service provider in question do not need your consent to share your data with each other. 

An employee of a private service provider will only see your data for the time you are receiving social welfare services from the service provider in question.

In social welfare services, no consent is required to use a client's data, if they are unable to assess the relevance of the consent given due to memory impairment, mental disorder, disability or similar reasons, and do not have a legal representative.

How can I limit the consent I have given?

If you wish, you can limit the consent you have given by setting up denials of consent. Denials of consent allow you to determine which data may not be shared by a wellbeing services county with another, or between public and private social welfare service providers. Denials of consent may complicate and slow down the managing of your affairs if, for example, you use several different services. Despite any denials of consent, your data may be used by the social welfare service provider who has recorded the data or in whose register your data is stored.

For which data can one deny usage?

You can target denials of consent in different ways. You can set up a denial of consent to the sharing of the following information:

  • information included in a specific document
  • information related to a specific service task (such as services for people of working age or for families with children)
  • all your data in the records of a specific social welfare service provider.

You can set up a denial of consent for a specific social welfare service provider to share your data stored in its register. For example, you can set up a denial of consent for a wellbeing services county to share your data.

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Last updated 12.11.2025