4 ms·

Ah... if you're a resident of Sweden, anybody can get your full name, address, date of birth, civil status, list of company engagements (e.g., board member, own

by rhblake 11y ago

Ah... if you're a resident of Sweden, anybody can get your full name, address, date of birth, civil status, list of company engagements (e.g., board member, owner of a firm, etc.) and the make and year of any cars registered by going to one of several websites - http://www.ratsit.se/ http://www.ratsit.se/ being one of the most popular ones. No login needed. This information is public data straight from the government. (Exceptions: people < 16-18 years old (afaik), and people with protected identity (about 15K out of 9.8M)). Call or visit the Swedish Tax Agency if you want further info, such as personal identity number ("personnummer" - think Social Security Number but used for absolutely everything), taxed income, identity and full info of parents (including mother's maiden name - so much for that), etc. You don't have to tell them who you are or why you want this information. Enter a street address on a site like ratsit.se and you'll find all the people registered on that particular address. I could go on. When I talk about this with friends in countries like Germany and France they're often flabbergasted; in Sweden we're so used to it that we think it's natural. We're basically doxxed by our own government by default. A stalker or identity thief's paradise. It's messed up.

jdmichal 11y ago
Though, I would wager that very few Swedish companies consider any of that information as a "password", as seen in the article...
- breakingcups 11y ago
  Overseas companies would though
hvidgaard 11y ago
I believe that such openness from the govnerment is actually helping you implement a more sound security procedure. If all of that information is well known to be publicly available, there is much more awareness that it is unless as authorisation.
- rhblake 11y ago
  Having someone's personal identity nummer (personnummer) is in itself enough to do a lot of damage. Many Swedish online shops will happily send you goods along with an invoice that you pay later. The invoice option is often only available if you provide your personnummer - which as I mentioned is public information, a phone call away - and have the goods sent to the address tied to that number. If you live in a house with a mailbox outdoors, a thief could order stuff to your address and empty the mailbox before you. "Stuff" could also be things like mobile phone subscriptions and whatnot. Or, having your personnummer, someone could send a form to the tax agency to have your official address changed! I believe they do send a letter to the old address saying the address has been changed to <new address>. But there's time to do bad stuff in between the time of the change and your discovery of it. (If, indeed, you do discover it. You might be traveling somewhere, a fact that might've been gleaned from your social media activity.) And, as breakingcups points out above, even if it were the case that sound security procedures were implemented in Sweden, that wouldn't matter much for the numerous non-Swedish services most Swedes use every day. Anyway -- people being able to do stuff in your name is just one thing. I don't want the whole world to know my address, or marital status, or date of birth, etc - period. It's about privacy.

by rhblake 11y ago

jdmichal 11y ago

Though, I would wager that very few Swedish companies consider any of that information as a "password", as seen in the article...

breakingcups 11y ago
Overseas companies would though

hvidgaard 11y ago

I believe that such openness from the govnerment is actually helping you implement a more sound security procedure. If all of that information is well known to be publicly available, there is much more awareness that it is unless as authorisation.

rhblake 11y ago
Having someone's personal identity nummer (personnummer) is in itself enough to do a lot of damage. Many Swedish online shops will happily send you goods along with an invoice that you pay later. The invoice option is often only available if you provide your personnummer - which as I mentioned is public information, a phone call away - and have the goods sent to the address tied to that number. If you live in a house with a mailbox outdoors, a thief could order stuff to your address and empty the mailbox before you. "Stuff" could also be things like mobile phone subscriptions and whatnot. Or, having your personnummer, someone could send a form to the tax agency to have your official address changed! I believe they do send a letter to the old address saying the address has been changed to <new address>. But there's time to do bad stuff in between the time of the change and your discovery of it. (If, indeed, you do discover it. You might be traveling somewhere, a fact that might've been gleaned from your social media activity.) And, as breakingcups points out above, even if it were the case that sound security procedures were implemented in Sweden, that wouldn't matter much for the numerous non-Swedish services most Swedes use every day. Anyway -- people being able to do stuff in your name is just one thing. I don't want the whole world to know my address, or marital status, or date of birth, etc - period. It's about privacy.