Sweden’s search services – what do you think?

Sweden has the oldest Freedom of the Press Act in the world – from 1766. Of the four Fundamental Laws forming the Swedish constitution, two protect freedom of expression – The Freedom of the Press Act, and The Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression. The Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression protects the right of association (the right to gather), which is one of the reasons Sweden did not have a lockdown during covid. An amendment to the Constitution requires the same vote by two parliaments, separated by a general election. Also in the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression is a provision for media licences, aka publication certificates. Anyone can apply for a media licence. Sweden has a GDPR exemption for these licences.

In addition to Sweden’s protection of freedoms of expression and the press, there is the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act, and the Principle of Public Access to Official Documents. Unless a document is denoted secret, it is publicly available. Anyone can see it. That includes people’s addresses, criminal records, vehicle registrations, negative entries at the Public Enforcement Authority (debts), court rulings, preliminary investigation reports.

These laws were created for an analogue world, but in the electronic age, you can click into just about everything. To make it easier (and make money of course), there is a multitude of data brokers/search service which compile all this data so you can see it all in one place with just a click. Some examples are Mr Koll, Ratsit, Birthday, Hitta, Eniro, Lexbase, Krimfup.

It is kind of scary – if you know someone’s name and approximate age you can find out their age, address (including which floor they live on), value of their dwelling, car registration, date of birth. It has been used to commit crimes such as stalking, frauds, and gang murders, although some people say being able to look up a prospective date makes them feel safer. Some gangs have looked up elderly people living alone in order to rob them.

Here is the information available on me in one of the sites. I am including it – redacted – because the full version is publicly available to anyone in Sweden. What I have not included is the list of my neighbours names and all their information, and the click through to my husband’s information. You can even click through to  find my unique social security number, although you have to consent to have your IP address logged for that.

Sweden is the only country in the EU with this kind of freedom of information about its citizens. If you wish to have your information removed, you can make a request to the company, but they have the right to refuse to delete it. If you still have a problem with this, you can make a complaint to the Swedish Data Protection Authority.

What do you think of this? Do you think it is intrusive?