Personuppgifter och mediegrundlagarna SOU 2024 75
This 2024 Swedish government inquiry examines databases with voluntary publication certificates that make large quantities of personal data searchable. It is the strongest consolidated official account of how people-search, court-record, credit, and professional research services use constitutional media protection.
The inquiry inspected 1,391 of 1,560 certificate-bearing databases and classified 61, or about 4 percent, as large personal-data search services. It therefore distinguishes a narrow but consequential business model from publication certificates in general.
Its harm analysis links some services to victim selection, fraud preparation, threats, and pressure on public employees. It also records the public interest served by professional research databases, especially for smaller newsrooms investigating corruption, organized crime, money laundering, and tax fraud.
The inquiry proposed a constitutional exception for compilations that create a special risk of improper intrusion into personal privacy, so that GDPR rules could apply. The government later declined to proceed with that constitutional amendment, making the report an evidence base and reform proposal rather than a statement of enacted law.
The report grounds Swedish public-record privacy and Utgivningsbevis and people-search services.