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 A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

, tasked to protect the individual's privacy in the

information society An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid inf ...

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, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, th ...

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. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

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. 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 c ...

, 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 and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

and is led by

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

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