I use KELA rarely, however in the past I used it to apply for my student benefits, and one occasion to apply for unemployment benefits. Same goes for my family, retirement benefits are handled by KELA

I have already ordered the European health care card to be used on my travels. I mainly access KELA through their main page, and use secure log in methods.

I have checked my pension before and will not be releasing the information here, as I consider it to be personal.

Stuk (Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority) is a site that provides information about radiation related issues. I chose it because STUK is the authority, which qualifies machines and substances containing or creating radiation in the medical field. As a x-ray technician I often visit their directives to refresh my memory about the regulations they mandate. The site is upheld by government agency and has reliable information about radiation and it’s effects.

https://www.stuk.fi/stuk-valvoo/stuk-valvoo-sateily-ja-ydinturvallisuutta-suomessa

Shops

I quite often use Ebay, Hotels.com and Amazon.

                Ebay is a store where individuals or companies can sell their products new or used. I have ordered some items used from it with a good prize, however fraudulent sellers do exist on that platform and one needs to be careful what they order. A good way to make sure seller is good, is to note their reviews as a seller. Also as with everything, too good to be true deals exist, if the prize is unreal it is most likely a scam.

                Amazon is a site like Ebay, but mostly focuses on new items. It is a big organization and I consider it to be safe for use. Amazon prizes are hard to follow and searching items can yield variety of results. One must be alert with the prizes as the site does not automatically give you the best prize or the best item. I have more than one occasion noticed that using the Amazon search is really hard and reliable listings are hard to find.

The bigger the site is, cheaper they can sell stuff, and often the prizes are much better on those, on the flip side you are sending money abroad instead of supporting local business.

                Hotels.com is a site that compares hotel prizes and gives you the best offering, or so they say. I just read a news article that said you can get a better deal when calling the hotel, as those sites (hotels, trivago, Booking) take a slice of the profit. Hotels are not allowed to sell cheaper rooms on their own webstore, but can offer those when directly calling the hotel.

Digital gaps

People who cant use digital services often cant compare prizes as thoroughly compared to those who can, and might have to pay more for items or services. Also important messages are presented online nowadays and for example product withdrawals can be found most efficiently from internet pages.

Reflection

Most of the subjects of this assignment were already quite familiar to me, however I took a slightly deeper dive in to the subjects presented in this assignment than I would normally do.

I knew KELA handles benefits, as I had applied for those in the past but did not know the amount of other useful information there were for example for the employer. Now I know more about the information available on KELA’s site and can more efficiently use it to gather useful knowledge.

I have a lot of experience with online stores as those are my main source of electronical goods, and use a fair bit of time to evaluate the risks using those contain. There are a lot of stories online how people have been scammed when they use fraudulent stores. Stores that mimic real sites are everywhere and skills to determine weather a store is reliable are in the demand. More information should be made easily accessible to people how to notice a scam site. There have been few occasions that my friends have asked me if a site is reliable. The easiest way is to look for site reviews, second the payment options: if only credit card is accepted, that is a major red flag. Most good sites use multiple payment options and have reviews posted in multiple sites like trustpilot (https://fi.trustpilot.com/)

I had not considered the risks and possible harm for the people who can’t or won’t use digital services. I did visit the subject on my previous task concerning the goals for digitalization within EU, however I only focused on the health care side of things.  As more and more of the information, not only health care related is on the internet, it will put those who can’t use it in less than ideal situation. People might not be able to get the latest information regarding as simple as food sales and end up using more money on products.