Sweden Cracks Down on Internet Salary Snoopers

An internet service that caused a storm in Sweden by letting people snoop on each other's finances has been scaled back by regulators.

The website, Ratsit.se, sparked controversy as soon as it was launched because it allowed users to perform anonymous, free credit checks and salary searches on any Swedish citizen. Within just a few clicks, nosy neighbors, business competitors and complete strangers were able to find out about each other's earnings and whether they had outstanding bills to be paid.

The Ratsit system, which used a loophole in Swedish press freedom and financial transparency laws, was quickly adopted by inquiring members of the public, and now has more than 600,000 registered users. At its height, more than 50,000 credit checks were being performed every day in a country with a population of 9m.

But while transparency laws regarding income are much broader in Sweden than in most other countries, the ease with which people could access personal information using the site provoked angry responses. A welter of complaints that the concept was being taken to extremes followed the launch in November last year.

"This type of access to financial information is in no way available in other countries like it is here," said Hans Karnlof, a lawyer with the Swedish Data Inspection Board.

"Visitors we've had from Ireland and Germany, for example, just drop their jaws when they hear about it."

Earlier this month the authorities relented to pressure and decided to impose restrictions on the service to prevent it from being abused. Under the new rules, which were brought into operation last week, it will cost around 15 Swedish Krona (£1) for the first 10 reports and a further 25 Krona (£1.80) for each additional request.

Crucially, the inspections are no longer anonymous, and the target will receive email notification explaining who has asked for access to their personal information.

"I do think our service is justified because things like wages should be transparent," said Anders Johansson, the chief executive of Ratsit. "A lot of people use it to negotiate their pay."

In Britain there are some similar ways to access public information to learn about an individual's financial circumstances. For example, the Land Registry allows people to discover exactly how much their neighbor's house cost.

But a spokeswoman for British data privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office, said a service like Ratsit would not be legal in Britain.

"It doesn't sound like it would be compliant with UK data protection laws," she said.