The authority begins to supervise the greetings of the moderates by video

The privacy watchdog, IMY, received “a large number of complaints” against personal video greetings sent by moderates before the election.

– We have received nearly 150 complaints. Martin Wetzler, an attorney at IMY, says what they experienced was that their personal data was disclosed and displayed in video greetings without their consent, and that the data was available to others.

He will investigate whether the information has ended up abroad

The complaints relate, among other things, to suspicions that personal data was stored abroad via the services used to send greetings and that the party did not report how personal data was used during the campaign, IMY writes.

The authority will now investigate whether the party had the right to collect the personal data, as well as whether the data was transferred to the United States in connection with the video greetings.

In Swedish law, there are certain exceptions to the data protection regulations, GDPR, regarding freedom of expression and information. The exception includes the processing of personal data carried out for journalistic purposes.

Moderates welcome scrutiny

According to the IMY, it should also be investigated whether the moderators had a journalistic purpose with the processing of all or parts of their personal data.

Can a campaign video have a journalistic purpose?

– Much of it depends on the free dissemination of opinions and ideas, and a party that shares a political message can have a journalistic purpose by spreading that message, says Martin Wetzler.

Moderates do not show up for the interview, but write in a text message to Kulturnyheterna:

“We welcome that IMY is taking the initiative to look more closely at the processing of personal data in relation to personal video greetings. Moderators take personal integrity very seriously. We will of course assist IMY in their oversight work.”

Moderates also say the film took home an award at the US Reed Awards on Wednesday night — “the global political campaign’s equivalent of the Oscars.”