FC: Swedish city council refuses to be named on city web site

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

A politech member was kind enough to secure a translation of the below 
article, which appeared in a Swedish publication. The web site in question 
appears to be here: http://www.horby.se/

Apparently under Sweden's data protection laws -- their implementation of 
the European Data Directive -- individuals must grant permission before 
someone is allowed to mention their name on a website:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01532.html
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=palme

Our translator (I don't have permission to forward his email address) says: 
"Please note the irony in that the politician who wanted to be anonymous is 
named in this article..."

-Declan

*********

http://www.aip.sap.se/tt/12_dec/90.html

City council members want to be anonymous on the Internet

Almost half of the 64-member elected city council in the Swedish
city Hörby do not want to have their names on the city's new
Internet homepage. One of them says it is for security reasons.

If you click on the list of council members on the Web page it says
only "a member" in place of the name for some of the politicians.

- We had to do so because some politicians do not want to be visible
on the page. They have not given their permission as required by the
Personal Data Act, says Ann Charlott Engström, editor for the city's
Web page, to newspaper Skånska Dagbladet.

One member states the safety of his family as the reason why he does
not want his name published.

- There are people who are hostile to immigrants. I want to protect
my family from them, says the socialdemocratic council member
Francisco Nolasco who has chosen to be anonymous.

Others blame their own negligence. They have simply forgotten to
send their required approval to the Web page editor. Only the 37
council members who explicitly said yes are named on the page.




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