I spent New Year’s Eve in Sweden and it is always interesting again to see that Swedes are much less concerned regarding privacy than people in most other European countries. Especially services like requesting the holder of a car including type, registration date and location by just sending a SMS with the license number to 72503 or getting detailed information about the salary history and financial standing of a person on ratsit.se for only a small fee would not be possible and accepted in most other European countries.

This is not surprising if you have a look at a Eurobarometer report from 2011 stating that only 33% of the Swedes are concerned about over-disclosure of personal information. The EU average is 72%. The revelations about the Swedish government spying on Russia to support the NSA and opposing to the planned reform of the European Data Protection Regulation confirm that privacy is not a big concern in Sweden.