Hacker News Reader

That is all public data. You can get that through open channels like birthday.se as well. I've been at BankID and I know for a fact exactly what information they store. They store only what is necessary from a regulatory standpoint.

View on HN

Are personal mobile phone numbers considered public information in Sweden?

You can get a phone number without registering it to your name, but otherwise yes. Most people's phone numbers can be found online, as well as reverse (find someone's name by phone number) .

A paradise for identity theft

Requiring strong ID verification (from government ID or the digital ID we're discussing) helps protect against identity theft. Other countries I've lived in that use very weak forms of ID ("a utility bill in your name") seem like much bigger paradises for identity theft.

I'm talking about cross border identity theft. The public data of swedish citizens is sufficent for weaker identity systems in other countries.

Practically identity theft the way you think about are very rare in Sweden, more common are social engineering attempts like calling people and asking them to use their MobilBank ID while the caller logs in in their name.

Remember that personal ID numbers are not a big secret in Sweden as well, and still we don't see any big problem with that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com