From the Miami Herald:
Want to know how much your boss earns? Or whether your daughter’s fiance is in debt?
For Swedes, it takes just a few clicks on the Internet to find out.
But many feel the Web has taken things too far, and proud though they are of Sweden’s unusual history of openness, they have pressured providers to put some limits on a service that allowed Swedes to snoop through each other’s finances anonymously and free of charge.
“Your neighbor knows what you’re making, your brother-in law knows what you’re making, and people around you can know whether you’re on any records for outstanding payments. It’s private and a bit embarrassing,” said Hans Karnlof, a lawyer at the Swedish Data Inspection Board.
Things came to a head in November when a Swedish Web site, Ratsit.se, started publishing financial details, free of charge, from the national tax authority. The site has some 610,000 registered users – in a country of 9 million – and handled an average of 50,000 online credit checks a day.
Read on.
[tags]Online Snooping, Privacy[/tags]