What’s the Swedish panic, honestly!

It’s amazing that there is such a flurry in Sweden about the leaking on the personal data of most of its citizens’ by the traffic authority. The fact is in Sweden, the personal ID and personal data of those resident in Sweden is already public data. Take a look at an article I wrote in 2014. It describes why this is and how personal data of Swedish citizens is not only public but is even used by companies to make money. In short there is a conflict between the Swedish Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Freedom of Information Act, which means that personal data of the Swedish citizen is public today.

As a British (and Swedish citizen now) it drove me crazy that the Swedes did not take this issue seriously. GDPR is going to change this as Sweden will no longer be able to interpret the law in a way to make it Swedish-friendly. However, I was getting concerned that the Swedes would find a way around this, in their own way, the closer we are getting to the deadline of 25 May 2018.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/sweden-hack-details-transport-department-government-police-parliament-opposition-a7860651.html

 

 

11 Replies to “What’s the Swedish panic, honestly!”

  1. Hmm..wish I knew exactly when the ePrivacy regulation is coming into effect. When you know, please let us all know. I can hardly wait for it!

  2. Hopefully the ePrivacy Regulation will fix the issue with clashing of the laws in Sweden. Too bad it’s not coming into effect till sometime in 2019!

  3. Unfortunately under FAQs section on Birthday and Upplysning it still mentions they cannot remove personal info as it is public info and comes from public authorities’ public register. Even GDPR cannot protect us from these crook companies selling our info and making money off of it!

    1. Yes I agree, however, public authorities did not ask permission from the data subject to make it public. They are still processing without a legal ground IMHO. I am researching into this now to see if what action can be taken.

  4. Ok so now we can remove ourselves from 900+ sites which we never wanted to be listed on in the first place. Is there a way to find a list of sites displaying personal info without consent in Sweden?
    Hitta mentions in that link that Freedom of Expression goes above GDPR rules. Breaching people’s privacy is not Freedom of Expression! Never asked to be on these sites in the first place. These crook companies are still exploiting the loophole even after GDPR. How sad.

  5. These sites publishing peoples personal info and displaying it for anyone in the whole world to peruse at their leisure still exist. So I guess GDPR had no effect on any of this..

  6. You say these sites (hitta, birthdays etc) cannot exist after GDPR, but I can’t see these sites taking ANY measures for GDPR. Not even the FAQ sections, or the social media sites for these websites are talking about GDPR. I guess we will find out for sure in few more days if GDPR has any impact on these websites!

  7. I read below article today from The Local:
    https://www.thelocal.se/20180207/ten-secrets-you-cant-keep-in-sweden

    What do you think will happen to these web sites displaying personal info freely in Sweden after GDPR comes into effect? They even have info on celebrities, politicians, anyone! Have they not heard of id theft! Can these sites really exist after GDPR? I seriously hope not! But I do not see these sites making any preparations for GDPR yet!

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