The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection ( sv, Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten), formerly the Swedish Data Protection Authority ( sv, Datainspektionen), is a

Swedish government agency The government agencies in Sweden are state-controlled organizations that act independently to carry out the policies of the Government of Sweden. The ministries are relatively small and merely policy-making organizations, allowed to monitor the ...

, organized under the Ministry of Justice, tasked to protect the individual's privacy in the information society without unnecessarily preventing or complicating the use of new technology. The agency ensure legislation within this area is complied with and as such supervise different registers and carry out inspections of companies, organizations and other government agencies; led by the agency's own IT security specialists and legal advisors. The most important legislation is th
Personal Data Act of 1998
th
Debt Recovery Act of 1974
and th
Credit Information Act of 1973
The agency also has an expert advisory role when the Government prepares new statutory provisions.

History

The Swedish Data Protection Authority was established in 1973, as a result of public concern about personal data and abuse of government power related to

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

and the enactment of the world's first national data protection law: the

Data Act The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) is a law that aims to make information on federal expenditures more easily accessible and transparent. The law requires the U.S. Department of the Treasury to establish common st ...

. On 1 January 2021, the agency was renamed to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection.

International co-operation

The board is tasked to supervise the Schengen Information System, and is involved in a number of international groups that work on privacy and personal data issues; for instance EU's data protection group and the supervisory function of Europol's data system.

Organization

The agency is based in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and is led by Director-general Kristina Svahn Starrsjö. It has approximately 40 employees, the majority of whom are lawyers. The agency also has a call center that receive on average 200 calls and 60-70 e-mails per week, mostly relating to topical questions regarding protection of privacy.

References

External links