Privacy nightmare in Sweden

[stuckinaprivacynightmare]

Long story short, born in Sweden, grew up in the UK, got married in the UK, got divorced in the UK, got retrenched in the UK, headed back to Sweden for a fresh start, started dating again 2 years later.

Had a very bitter and messy divorce with ExH after I left him due to his excessive and escalating gambling problem. Lost my job shortly after as my entire department was made redundant and decided to take a break and move back home to Sweden so I could collect myself and start again. 2 years later I started dating someone, and we moved in together just 2 months ago.

Here we have a ridiculous number of websites, not even shady ones but ones perhaps as popular as LinkedIn in that it shows up right at the top of Google when searching for someone's name, that display my full name, address, birthday, phone number, and details of whoever I'm living with.

ExH found out I'm living with DP and is sending hostile messages to both of us. This I can handle for now but it got me thinking.

I used to have an online stalker who thankfully was thwarted because back then all I used was a common username across a couple of sites. But now with LinkedIn and my professional project portfolio site it'd be even easier for someone to find out where I live, amongst other things.

AIBU to think this is a huge privacy and safety issue?

Delete LinkedIn, social media is a choice. Block your ex and get DP to do the same.

I'm asking if it's me being paranoid or if this is a safety and privacy issue. Spoke to a few people about this but it's just the way it is apparently and all fine.

I don't have LinkedIn anymore but the portfolio site has to be there for professional purposes. These websites get all your info directly from the tax agency.

So you'd be ok with everyone under the sun knowing your full address, birthday, phone number, and who lives under the same roof as you?

How can LinkedIn be displaying all your personal details if you don’t have it? I think the fact that this is a UK site means many of us won’t understand how tax information in Sweden is used online so it’s hard to no what you mean really.

The linkedin example is a comparison to how non-shady and popular these sites are. Just search any swedish person online for example. Look for the [website name redacted by MNHQ on OP's request] results and you'll see what I mean. All those details taken directly from the government so even if you request this site to take them down there are a dozen other sites who will publish it in plain sight.

In the uk, all this info is on the electoral role but you can opt out of the public version. Which I do.

doesnt the Swedish government system have an opt out? What about victims of stalking or domestic violence?

I don’t know any Swedish people to search their names. Your LinkedIn example doesn’t really make sense. Where does the personal information originate from? Why can’t you just use a common username like you used to?

Hi - I’m Swedish, born and grew up there but live in the UK since 10 years. I know what you mean by those sites and honestly think it’s pretty wild even though it’s the norm over there with all information being official and easily accessible like that.. definitely don’t agree with it! I think you can request for some of the sites to delete your info, perhaps try getting in touch with them?

Sorry I wasn't clear. OK so the tax agency has all these information. It's public.

You can never have a single online account and these sites can still have all your data publicly published. People can then search your name on google and see all these data in plain text.

The information that you can access on people in Sweden from official government agency websites is amazing. There is little that you can do as far as I understand, even if you are a public servant in a sensitive role!

Remnants of a high trust society?

If you change name are those records freely available as well?

I know exactly what you mean. I have a Swedish friend so I’ve seen these websites. It’s as if HMRC published our personal data on a social media/networking site like LinkedIn or Facebook. I don’t know how Sweden can square this with GDPR, which must apply across Europe, surely!

I’m in Sweden - I requested the main site - I’m sure you know which one(!)- to remove my info and it’s gone. DH has also removed his DOB from his entry.

However, this system can be a nightmare. The biggest hassle we ever had with it was a well known local company using our address as their own - they didn’t have a mail box so took our apartment address as the nearest one. We dumped their post. We complained to the tax office and the Chairperson of our apartment building. Nothing happened. Then, a new addressee started getting mail at our address - checked the site and, yes, he had apparently moved to our apartment (but he hadn’t) Checked him out on Google and he had addresses in London and elsewhere. . We suspected criminal activity so notified the police and the tax . Nothing happened for months until a plain clothes police officer knocked on our door looking for him. We explained the history and, miraculously, all the wrong addressees disappeared. The local business also closed and relocated.

Can you not put a block on your info being released? In Finland at least you can block your information being released anywhere, for instance DV victims can ask for this, done via the population registry office here so maybe via a similar department there or then the tax office?

Hiya. I work with financial services companies who are based in Sweden and there is definitely a protocol that you can follow to have a "protected identity" with the Swedish Tax Agency. It sounds as if you have evidence to enable application so hope it works out for you if you go for it.

And yes the level of information that is shared in Sweden is insane...I believe you can see each others salary details as well.

It is a serious issue in Sweden and is why Steig Larsson’s girlfriend couldn’t live with him or marry him so got none of his estate when he died. I’m amazed the law hasn’t changed since then

It is an issue but maybe it doesn’t lead to much abuse? I googled an American friend as I’d lost touch and got her current address, her age, how long she’d lived there and the mortgage amount! It also had her phone and email address.

so in basic terms can someone explain it to me ?

If you live in Sweden, there are multiple websites where you can "look up" someone that lives in Sweden so essentially, for example if you have beef with someone on your local Facebook group you can be nosy and go on one of these websites search "Jonas Svensson, Jonköping" and it will list his personal details: full address and what its worth, phone number, date of birth (will even suggest sendinding him flowers on his birthday via interflora) and who he lives with (over the age of 18, I think). It will list all of his previous addresses and all of his vehicles. You have the option of looking at the other named people in his house too. I think you can also look into how much he earns, but i think that's an advanced search that you have to pay for. The Swedish tax office supplies all the info and the Swedish tax office basically knows everything you do....

Sweden has very high levels of publicly available data on individuals. Things like tax returns are publicly available. I used to work in debt collection across Europe - Sweden was easy as you could trace people and find out how much they earned from public data.

Why (some) personal data is open data in Sweden - ODECO https://share.google/AB1wOyAf1zL07xCdY