dataskydd

Dataskydd refers to the protection of personal data and privacy in the handling of such data. It encompasses legal, organizational, and technical measures to ensure that individuals’ personal information is collected, stored, and processed in a manner that respects their rights and limits risks such as misuse, unauthorized access, or data breaches.

The core legal framework is the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (Allmänna dataskyddsförordningen, GDPR), which sets common requirements for processing personal data across member states. In Sweden, GDPR is complemented by national rules in Dataskyddslagen, and the supervisory authority Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY) oversees enforcement, guidance, and complaint handling.

Key principles include lawfulness, fairness, and transparency; purpose limitation; data minimization; accuracy; storage limitation; integrity and confidentiality; and accountability. Personal data may only be processed if there is a lawful basis such as consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task, or legitimate interests, with requirements for information, consent withdrawal, and easy access to rights.

Individuals have rights such as access to their data, rectification, erasure (the right to be forgotten), restriction of processing, data portability, objection to processing, and protection against automated decision-making where applicable. Organizations must implement data protection by design and by default, maintain records of processing activities, conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments for high-risk processing, and appoint a data protection officer in certain cases.

Transfers of personal data outside the EEA require safeguards, such as adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses. Non-compliance can lead to fines and reputational damage.