I've been told back in the day it was quite normal get a physical, dead-tree book with similar information sent out to you every year, until people decided that was a waste of paper.

When I lived Norway, my gf at the time would look up the license plates of cars that annoyed her and could see how much debt they had on the car to make fun of them. Scandinavians are oddly very open with this type of personal info.

I learned this (public info) about Sweden a few years ago and as an American it really pissed me off.

In the US you can get the exact same info and probably more by simply paying a private corporation/middle man (background check services).

It seems like a huge trend in many sectors. We have the same setup as other countries, but shittier for consumers because there are lifeless leaches as middle men to make a quick buck.

Yes, it is possible to have a protected identity.

> Are there no murderers, crazy ex-boy/girlfriends, targeted harrassment and spam calls in Sweden?

Of course, contrary to popular belief, Sweden is not a perfect country without violence and shit people!

It seems to be somewhat respected overall though, but I'm sure it'll eventually disappear. For the people who are stalked and what not, it's relatively easy to apply and get "protected identity" if you're affected by those things, and then eventually all those 3rd party websites remove the stale data.

Personally I solved this problem for myself by moving away from the country.

There are. You can get a protected identity if you have that issue.

The current system has been in place around 1770. There's some pushback against it the last few years.