The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (), formerly the Swedish Data Protection Authority (), is a Swedish government agency, organized under the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, tasked to protect the individual's privacy in the

information society An information society is a society or subculture where the usage, Content creation, creation, information distribution, distribution, manipulation and information integration, integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drive ...

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 Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...

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 A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

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 government, local and federal governments or intell ...

and the enactment of the world's first national data protection law: the Data Act. 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 The Schengen Information System (SIS) is a governmental database maintained by the European Commission. The SIS is used by 31 European countries to find information about individuals and entities for the purposes of national security, border ...

, 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 Europol, officially the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU). Established in 1998, it is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and serves as the central hub for coordinating c ...

'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, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and is led by

Director-general A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

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