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I don't know how this would actually fix anything. You can get the same information on a person by simply calling the tax authorities since it's public informat

by Kiro 3y ago

I don't know how this would actually fix anything. You can get the same information on a person by simply calling the tax authorities since it's public information in Sweden. MrKoll is just publishing it on a website.

mongrelion 3y ago
Perhaps this is more security by obscurity but making it easier on criminals to find your personal information is not necessarily a good thing. Imagine being a criminal and now you want to find your victim's personal information and you directly call Skatteverket... Less compelling than going to hitta.se from a public, open wifi network
- eqvinox 3y ago
  > making it easier on criminals to find your personal information This can also work to the victim's benefit: any information publicly accessible from these records is automatically unsuitable for identity theft and the likes. If e.g. a tax ID number is in these records (no idea if that's the case), some company asking for that number to establish authenticity/authorization won't have any ground to stand on if it gets called into question. That said it's probably possible to make inferences, i.e. knowing what company someone works for might make it possible to guess security questions (e.g. "what was your first boss' name?")
  - Kiro 3y ago
    Social security number is public information as well and it's never used for authentication so you're right. You normally identify yourself using BankID, which is issued by your bank and tied to your phone. Identity theft is still possible but requires much more intricate methods.
alkonaut 3y ago
Having information be public on request (e.g. from courts) is important. But the step from making individual bits of information public via request from authorities, to making it indexed/published/searchable for anyone in the world through a private company is quite a big one. This privacy/security by obscurity you get from having to fill out forms or call a court isn't something one can just argue doesn't mean anything because public-vs-nonpublic is the only measure.
Findecanor 3y ago
When you call the Swedish tax authority to request information, you are not permitted to retrieve more than a handful of records within a time period. And you are not allowed to search: you can only query records for people that can be directly identified, by e.g. name/address or social security number. These companies have a copy of the database.
- awaythrow999 3y ago
  I recently learned address is public information in Sweden so provided you have the name then getting access to tax info would be trivial?
  - Ma8ee 3y ago
    It is. Of course the bank checks my income for the last few years before it gives me a loan. I also recently got a possible employer to admit that he checked my preceding years taxed income before giving me an offer.
esbranson 3y ago
The government would have records of such requests, so one assumes a person could request to know who has requested their records. Once they utilize their rights under Article 17 GDPR that data brokers delete their data and notify all recipients of the deletion, one could at least know who is stalking them.

by Kiro 3y ago

mongrelion 3y ago

Perhaps this is more security by obscurity but making it easier on criminals to find your personal information is not necessarily a good thing. Imagine being a criminal and now you want to find your victim's personal information and you directly call Skatteverket... Less compelling than going to hitta.se from a public, open wifi network

eqvinox 3y ago
> making it easier on criminals to find your personal information This can also work to the victim's benefit: any information publicly accessible from these records is automatically unsuitable for identity theft and the likes. If e.g. a tax ID number is in these records (no idea if that's the case), some company asking for that number to establish authenticity/authorization won't have any ground to stand on if it gets called into question. That said it's probably possible to make inferences, i.e. knowing what company someone works for might make it possible to guess security questions (e.g. "what was your first boss' name?")
- Kiro 3y ago
  Social security number is public information as well and it's never used for authentication so you're right. You normally identify yourself using BankID, which is issued by your bank and tied to your phone. Identity theft is still possible but requires much more intricate methods.

alkonaut 3y ago

Having information be public on request (e.g. from courts) is important. But the step from making individual bits of information public via request from authorities, to making it indexed/published/searchable for anyone in the world through a private company is quite a big one. This privacy/security by obscurity you get from having to fill out forms or call a court isn't something one can just argue doesn't mean anything because public-vs-nonpublic is the only measure.

Findecanor 3y ago

When you call the Swedish tax authority to request information, you are not permitted to retrieve more than a handful of records within a time period. And you are not allowed to search: you can only query records for people that can be directly identified, by e.g. name/address or social security number. These companies have a copy of the database.

awaythrow999 3y ago
I recently learned address is public information in Sweden so provided you have the name then getting access to tax info would be trivial?
- Ma8ee 3y ago
  It is. Of course the bank checks my income for the last few years before it gives me a loan. I also recently got a possible employer to admit that he checked my preceding years taxed income before giving me an offer.

esbranson 3y ago

The government would have records of such requests, so one assumes a person could request to know who has requested their records. Once they utilize their rights under Article 17 GDPR that data brokers delete their data and notify all recipients of the deletion, one could at least know who is stalking them.