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Comment by occz

3 years ago

Taxable income is public information in Sweden, and you can basically buy a catalog containing the previous years income for everyone in a given area if you'd like.

Stuff like addresses and so on is also public information in Sweden, for what it's worth. This always makes me feel a bit strange when hearing people considering releasing someone's address to be doxxing and something horrible - like you can just look up any person in Sweden, and the societal consequence is that literally nothing happens. Same with the incomes, nothing whatsoever happens from having this be public.

16 comments

occz

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bergkvist  3 years ago

Actually addresses being public are causing issues. Sweden has a lot of problems with gang violence, and gang members often register their public addresses to other peoples addresses, causing innocent people to be killed. The address you enter is in no way being verified beyond it needing to be a valid address.

colmmacc  3 years ago

I have a very hard time believing that sales-people and trades-people don't take it into considering when negotiating or quoting a price. One of the reasons a car sales person wants to "check your credit" early in the process is to get your credit rating and address - which helps them guess your price sensitivity - and many home services certainly take into account the area you live in even when it is irrelevant.

  • sofixa  3 years ago

    Yeah, "checking your credit" doesn't exist, really, outside of the US. When making loan decisions, your income and loan totals/history are the main things considered, not an arbitrary score by private third parties that couldn't keep the data safe if their lives depended on it.

    • tyoma  3 years ago

      A credit score is determined by your loan totals/history.

      Every lender needs to assess credit-worthiness in some way, and they resort to the very similar schemes, with minor procedural differences based on cultural factors and historical accident.

      3 replies →

    • lotsofpulp  3 years ago

      A lender or seller does not have to use any specific credit score. Many businesses calculate their own credit score based on borrowing/repayment history, and some do not calculate a score at all.

  • lotsofpulp  3 years ago

    > many home services certainly take into account the area you live in even when it is irrelevant.

    When negotiating a price, how much a buyer is able and willing to pay is always relevant for a seller. (And vice versa for a buyer).

dagw  3 years ago

the societal consequence is that literally nothing happens. Same with the incomes, nothing whatsoever happens from having this be public.

Objectively not true. Scammers use that data all the time to target high net worth individuals. Especially high net worth old people living alone.