Well in Denmark (And I believe Sweden as well), back in the 30's, they did also front run for eugenics. I guess they really like control and hate individualism.
Sweden liked individualism in Corona epidemic at least... But i think the problem is rather IT illiteracy. On the other hand many of them are lawyers, so they should understand that it violates privacy rights. I don't see how that is going to pass the court of human rights should it ever come to pass...
By the same token they should install mandatory apps in cars that has the microphone on and records the driver at all times and listens to potential children being abducted. I think they would then better understand the implications...
My point being that the Swedes had a different approach than most other countries:
They basically said "every grown up can decide for themselves. Just be reasonable." And it worked. Until it didn't. Especially in hub areas.
Not sure if I would agree its been a hellhole for privacy, but I would agree we put a tad too much good faith in our government. From a Norwegian aspect at least.
I'm sorry, but it is. There are laws protecting some aspects of your privacy but you're in a much more vulnerable position compared to someone from a third word country without much state surveillance at all. There is too big an incentive to collect your data and the Americans which your government shares the data with are really good at it. You simply have a much harder time hiding your data.
Not Scandinavia, but I've seen some bs in Finland too. Apparently if you're suspected of copyright infringment (like torrenting), your ISP must give up the data (like IP addresses) to lawyers asking for it in the case. This is against EU directives too. These law firms are shady, they aren't really with the copyright holders but they just send out letters en masse, hoping someone will be dumb enough to pay up, or to respond to the letter (that's when they get you). If you respond and try to defend yourself, they know you've gotten their letter. If you don't respond or pay at all, most likely nothing happens afterwards. I know someone who got their letter over 10 years ago and still nothing heard since.
Awful. In general, the European death grip on piracy is concerning to say the least. Corporations get protection for their IP and you get chat control.
The latest election in sweden was absolutely dominated by "law and order". Every news cycle for the last 10 years or so has been riddled with the messaging that 'The country is falling apart, open warfare on the street!'. (Hint: it's not, it's not even bad compared to other wealthy nations, it's just bad by our incredibly high standards)
Add that to cultures who largely trusts government to do the right thing and you have a populace nearly screaming for authoritarian policies.
'Fun' fact, the liberal party in sweden has only really been vocal about authoritarian policies for decades, and I don't mean that they fight against them...
Social democrats usually love government control. The Norwegian social democrats used a lot of resources to spy on communists during the cold war, and they have been pro pretty much any government surveillance and control proposals.
The Social Democratic Party also wanted to ban private ownership of satellite TV receivers in the 1980's.
This is actually a myth (mostly). It was one member of parliament, a Social Democrat, who wanted this ban. The claim that it was the will of the party in general was clearly refuted in a parliament debate in 1982 and then again in 1984.
The social democrats in Sweden have always salivated at the thought of more and more mass surveillance. The main conservative party as well, for that matter.
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u/raxiam Skåne 13d ago
Previous attempt was by the (former) Swedish commissioner Ylva Johansson