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Sweden: IMY provides guidance on processing of criminal offence data

The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection ('IMY') issued, on 3 October 2022, guidance on the processing of personal data related to criminal offences by companies performing background checks. In particular, the IMY stated that private companies need permission from the IMY to process such data in certain cases.

Furthermore, the IMY imposed a number of conditions on companies intending to process this category of personal data, including that:

  • the company only processes personal data on legal violations of individual jobseekers that is relevant for that specific position or assignment; and
  • such data can have a decisive significance for the registrant's suitability for the position or assignment.

Based on each individual application, the IMY mentioned that it will state which criminal information is deemed to be relevant for the involved position during the background check of individual job applicants which the company would be given permission to process.

You can read the press release, only available in Swedish, here.

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