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The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

commit.pizza

41–50 of 261 posts

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#41
post #6

I don't think this is true. You can apply for "Skyddade personuppgifter" (Protected personal data) which means your details won't be publicly viewable. Here is the documentation from the police: https://polisen.se/utsatt-for-brott/hjalp-och-stod-fran-samh... and here is the details from the tax agency: https://www.skatteverket.se/foretagochorganisationer/myndigh... I know bunch of other people who have protected iden…

I applied for this after getting multiple threats from a stalker and I got denied.

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#42
We really need to get a handle on what privacy and anonymity mean. As someone who cares very much about privacy, this article just doesn't resonate with me. Thinking in terms of having some singular "identity" means you've already lost.

The title of this post is straight up weird - "The only way of being anonymous is Sweden is illegal". That would imply that if you're walking down the street, anyone has the right to demand that you tell them your government identity? Or if you stop and talk to someone, at some point you need to tell them your government identity in case they're asked about it later? Obviously this is not the case.

The article is really complaining about being able to map between (SSN, name, phone numbers, address). The same mappings exist in the US, and basically everywhere else, regardless of whether mandated de jure or not. To me, the primary concern is not about the existence of this mapping, but about having to spill your well known identifiers in the first place. If I can walk into a store and make a purchase without leaking my name, then the store cannot lookup my address or phone number. And they cannot track my purchases or return visit next week, which is a deeper form of privacy invasion that is generally missed when talking about this concept of singular government "identity".

If I'm signing up for a web account and the website forces me to give my name, phone number, or address (especially in a way that they verify), then likewise I end up connected to my singular government identity just to use a web site. Meanwhile if there are laws prohibiting them from asking such information, or trying to figure it out from IP addresses etc, then I remain anonymous (psuedonymous) to the website regardless of the existence of the mapping of government identities.

I roll my eyes every time I see some news article about a "personal information" leak that merely consists of mapping between well known government identifiers. Especially in the USian context, the more published social security and driving license numbers become, the better! The real concern is the tying of most of your every day behavior to any of those longstanding identifiers.

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#43

I knew a software engineer who used to live in sweden. One day he had a payraise. Out of the blue his landlord raised his rent. Apparently she somehow found out about his payraise and now i know how. She even told him that she knows he can afford more. He left sweden for this reason and racism. Before you believe all them nice stories about scandinavia, be sure to talk to people that lived in any of those countries a…

Landlords cant raise rent as they please in Sweden, the renting market and the amount of rent is controlled by the goverment.

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#44
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The barrier to be accepted is very low. And there is another, lower "mark" as well called "Sekretessmarkering" ("Privacy mark") which can give you similar benefits and has even lower barrier. Or are you saying you did apply for this and it wasn't successful?

I'm not OP. But asking the government to give you back privacy seems the worst of all possible worlds. The people who need it the most are usually the people the Swedish government wants dead, e.g. Assange.

"The people who need it the most are usually the people the Swedish government wants dead," Citation very much needed. Both on the claims that the Swedish government actually want people dead. And that this would need this protection _usually_ are in this category.

There are literally thousands of people that has this protection. 14000 women has this, commonly to protect them against an abusive partner (not the government). This page in Swedish provides more info: https://jamstalldhetsmyndigheten.se/mans-vald-mot-kvinnor/sk...

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#45
post #35

IANAL but in EU the EU laws override member laws. So, since GDPR if you want your info to be removed you' ll be able to do it. Of course maybe you' ll need to go to EUCJ to acheive it

He says the Swedish government ignores GDPR complaints, because they're unconstitutional. I don't understand how that could work though. I mean, unless EU laws are like "You must follow these laws! Unless you don't want to".

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#46
post #23

Freedom of expression is a big deal in Sweden. Tryckfrihetsförordningen (the other constitutional part besides Yttrandefrihetsgrundlagen) dates back to 1766. It's the oldest law ensuring freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Heja Sverige!

Freedom of expression is actually relatively limited in Sweden, but freedom of the press is almost absurdly well protected. It's more about ensuring the dynamics between institutions than the liberties of individuals.

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#48

As a Swede I love this openness. It puts everyone on an a level playing field and makes it much less dramatic and reduces the value of the data.

I don't think it reduces the value of data. It might reduce the acquisition cost, but not the value.

If the acquisition cost is lower, the value will be lower because you don't need to factor in the acquisition cost.

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#49
I was biking in the northern Sweden and stopping by a restaurant. I left my luggage on my unlocked bike outside while going in for lunch for an hour. Nothing strange about that, why would anyone steal a bike? Noone locked their bikes!

Instead of saying openess is bad, let's say what kind of society you would like to live in and then work towards it.

Personally I would rather not have a bike lock, nor door lock.

Re: The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal?

#50
post #40

>"You see, in Sweden all citizens are required to have a physical street address connected to your social security number." What about homeless?

I've heard that they're given the address of the local municipality main office, but I'm not sure how correct that is.
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