The only way of being anonymous in Sweden is illegal? • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by ksidudwbw » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

onetimeusename wrote: post #154

rockbruno wrote: post #16

One of the "pranks" we play on expats moving to Sweden is to look them up on hitta.se, take a screenshot and send it back to them saying "this you?". They always freak out and with reason, these sites contain an obscene amount of personal information about you. Some of them even give you people's salary history, which is slightly harder to obtain but also totally legal. The weirdest thing I thought is that most Swede…

Do you get a lot of scam calls? In the US this is a problem, I think most of the calls just use telephony software to automate and brute force every possible number. They spoof the originating phone number but they 99.9% likelihood are coming from another country with call centers like India or the Philippines. If you can access every Swedish citizen's data, this could be attractive for scammers especially if you wan…

The ability to spoof in the phone system is so stupid. Someone was spoofing being the police here

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

#172

Post by notch656a » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:29 PM UTC

playingalong wrote: post #151

collegeburner wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for what its worth im in America (where crime is way way higher) and i don't consider that normal. probably a cultural thing.

Interesting Can someone enter your house without using any force or tools?

I'm from a very hick part of America and I know probably half a dozen people who used a phrase something like "unlocked doored, locked and loaded shotgun." Not exactly condoning that phrase, but the thief in hillbilly parts of America is gonna have to use force eventually if they want to steal from an occupied home whether it is locked or not.

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

#173

Post by puglr » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:29 PM UTC

GekkePrutser wrote: post #152

rockbruno wrote: post #16

One of the "pranks" we play on expats moving to Sweden is to look them up on hitta.se, take a screenshot and send it back to them saying "this you?". They always freak out and with reason, these sites contain an obscene amount of personal information about you. Some of them even give you people's salary history, which is slightly harder to obtain but also totally legal. The weirdest thing I thought is that most Swede…

I don't understand how you don't revolt against this to be honest. And in terms of 'safe', didn't the extreme right just win big because the mainstream parties totally ignore the uptick in organized violent crime? At least that's what they said in the news here, perhaps it's not fully accurate. I understand state agencies might want to see personal data, though I often don't agree. Having it available for anyone to s…

Based on my observations from having Swedish friends and spending time in Sweden, a lot of the rise of the extreme right there can be directly attributed to the tensions resulting from the Syrian refugee crisis.

The last time I was in Sweden, ordinary folks were expressing ideas like "well maybe not everyone deserves free healthcare".

Like many western nations, economic opportunities and quality of social services is dipping. Standard practice for right wing parties to blame immigrants (or refugees, etc.).

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

#174

Post by MandieD » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:32 PM UTC

eduction wrote: post #80

mindslight wrote: post #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…

Your comment raises some really good points, one of which is that address information is actually public information. It is interesting to me how in the last say 30 years this information, which used to be just considered a basic fact, has become highly sensitized. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. But consider that virtually all municipalities make property records public by default, which was historically as a ma…

I think the main problem is that this information is no longer limited to people able to view printed copies of the data, but available to anyone in the world with internet access (immediate, and free), and much more quickly searched and used.

Even in super privacy-conscious Germany, anyone can get my home address... but they still have to be willing and able to physically go to my town's registry office and individually request it.

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

#175

Post by erk__ » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

yrgulation wrote: post #27

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…

Well across the border in Norway you can look up the pay of people, though I agree with sibling comments, I am rather sure that this practise would be illegal https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239

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

#176

Post by filoleg » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

shafoshaf wrote: post #92

diggan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd be notified that someone looked it up unless you buy the entire full set of data for the entire county / country, as it contains a bunch of people all together then. Also, in the notification they receive, only which service was used will be mentioned and not exactly who did it. So you can still lookup how much your co-workers earn without them knowing you asked for. But generally people are open with how much…

If the US could do one thing for race relations, I feel this would be it.

I feel like you are being a bit too optimistic in terms of what it would lead to. It definitely would do something to race relations, but perhaps not what you wanted, especially in the short term.

Hint: it might end up leading to an uptick in antisemitism.

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

#177

Post by Veen » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:34 PM UTC

dcminter wrote: post #3

Almost as interesting, you can (as I understand it) look up the current salary of anyone you want to. Though in doing so they will be notified that you have done so.

I believe that's true in Norway. Not sure about Sweden.

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

#178

Post by cinntaile » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

GekkePrutser wrote: post #152

rockbruno wrote: post #16

One of the "pranks" we play on expats moving to Sweden is to look them up on hitta.se, take a screenshot and send it back to them saying "this you?". They always freak out and with reason, these sites contain an obscene amount of personal information about you. Some of them even give you people's salary history, which is slightly harder to obtain but also totally legal. The weirdest thing I thought is that most Swede…

I don't understand how you don't revolt against this to be honest. And in terms of 'safe', didn't the extreme right just win big because the mainstream parties totally ignore the uptick in organized violent crime? At least that's what they said in the news here, perhaps it's not fully accurate. I understand state agencies might want to see personal data, though I often don't agree. Having it available for anyone to s…

Organized violent crime is mostly gang wars so ordinary people aren't directly affected. Although you could have bad luck and be mistaken for one of these gang members I guess.

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

#179

Post by adventured » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

impossiblefork wrote: post #60

m_eiman wrote: post #8

"This system was built and created for a different time where criminality was pretty much absent in Sweden" When was this golden age of (almost) no crime, I wonder?

Maybe 35-40 years ago. My grandmother never locked her door when she was at home, for example, even in 2020, because she'd lived so long in society as it was that she literally couldn't believe that it could end up as it had; and this wasn't due to stupidity. It was actually safe and normal once.

Where I grew up in the mid-Atlantic US people would commonly not lock their homes or cars. Near zero murder rate and home burglaries were exceptionally rare.

That's not an uncommon story in the US (maybe it is today), but you do have to be outside of cities.

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

#180

Post by onetimeusename » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

apienx wrote: 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!

it's interesting. I would think that freedom also means you cannot be compelled to provide data (or create speech) since that is not free expression or speech. But then again that would apply to government and bank forms too so it would not be a crime to lie to a bank, commit fraud, etc.

I don't know what to make of the database with respect to free speech/expression laws. Although admittedly the article says no one enforces that the data is accurate inside it. That seems reciprocal.