Protected personal data in Sweden: when hiding isn’t enough

Published 5 October 2026 Checked 5 October 2026

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For most people, it’s enough to remove yourself from the people-search sites and ask Google to remove the results. But your details stay with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), and anyone can request them. So if someone is threatening you, hiding on the sites isn’t enough. That’s when protected personal data (skyddade personuppgifter) protects you.

Are you in danger right now? Call 112. Kvinnofridslinjen supports people who have been exposed to threats and violence, on 116 016, day and night. Brottsofferjouren supports victims of crime, witnesses and their families on 116 006. Both are free, and you can stay anonymous.

Three kinds of protection

• Confidentiality marking (sekretessmarkering). A warning signal to Skatteverket and other authorities: before your details are released, they must carefully check whether they’re confidential. It covers all your personal details. Skatteverket decides.
• Protected registration (skyddad folkbokföring). The strongest protection Skatteverket can give. Your new address isn’t entered in the population register. Skatteverket decides.
• Assumed identity (fingerade personuppgifter). You get a new identity, with a new name and personal identity number. It’s only granted in exceptional cases, when no other protection is enough. The police decide.

Who can get protection?

You can get protected registration if you’re at risk of crime, persecution or serious harassment. Skatteverket gives some examples:

• You’ve been exposed to, or are at risk of, violence, threats or similar.
• A restraining order doesn’t give you enough protection.
• You’ve testified about a serious crime.

You can get a confidentiality marking if you or someone close to you could be harmed if your details were released. You can also get one as a precaution, for example if you’re exposed in your job or are going to testify in court. Then you don’t have to move.

An assumed identity is for people at risk of serious crime against their life, health, freedom or peace, when protected registration isn’t enough. Among other things, it means moving to a new town and cutting contact with parts of your earlier life. You apply to the police, and you can call 114 14 for advice.

Skatteverket and the police assess every case individually.

When you can’t get protection

Skatteverket says explicitly that you can’t get protected personal data because you don’t want to be visible online, or because you’ve been a victim of identity theft.

Nor can you get protected registration if you can’t help make the protection work, for example if you:

• have no address
• live at an address that the person threatening you knows or could find out
• haven’t moved far enough away
• commit crimes
• share details about yourself on social media
• have no documents showing that you need protection.

If you can’t get protected registration, you may get a confidentiality marking instead.

How to apply

You don’t need to know which protection to apply for. According to Skatteverket, the important thing is that you send in an application.

1. Fill in Skatteverket’s form: Ansökan – skyddad folkbokföring (SKV 7706) (protected registration) or Anmälan – sekretessmarkering (SKV 7708) (confidentiality marking). Don’t report a change of address separately.
2. Include documents that confirm the threat, for example investigations or statements from social services or the police.
3. Can’t print the form? Visit a service office, write your own letter, or call 010-57 35 500 (weekdays 9–15) and ask for it to be posted to you.

Everyone in your family who lives at your address should apply too. Otherwise you can be traced through your family relationships.

Once you’ve applied for protected registration, and meet the conditions, Skatteverket adds a temporary confidentiality marking while it investigates. Skatteverket can also consult the police or social services. You get the decision by letter, and the protection usually applies until further notice. Skatteverket: Apply for protected personal data (in Swedish).

What protected registration means

• You stay registered in your old municipality, or are registered in a municipality you have no connection to.
• Your address in the register becomes an address at Skatteverket, which forwards your post to you.
• Your new address isn’t registered and isn’t passed on to other authorities.
• Authorities and public services, such as healthcare, Försäkringskassan and your municipality, are told that you have protected registration.

Skatteverket expects a lot from you in keeping the protection working. For example, you shouldn’t publish details about yourself online, spend time in the same circles or area as before, or tell people where you live. You often need to change jobs, and children usually need to change preschool or school.

Children

If a child has two guardians, both usually have to sign the application for protected registration. If the child needs protection from the other guardian, one guardian can apply alone. For a confidentiality marking, social services or the police, for example, can tell Skatteverket that a child needs protection.

And on the people-search sites?

When someone gets protected personal data, SPAR, the state address register, removes their name and address. So the sites no longer get your details from there. Some sites also say what they do themselves:

• Birthday says people with protected identity are never shown.
• Biluppgifter says people with protected identity are filtered out.
• Lönia otherwise refuses removal, but removes you if you have protected identity. Include a personbevis (personal certificate).

Check anyway where you’re listed, and remove yourself from the sites where you still are. Check where you’re listed.

When the protection ends

Skatteverket can remove the protection if:

• your address isn’t current and your post doesn’t arrive
• the police provide information that leads to the protection being removed
• the need no longer exists, for example if the person who harmed you has died.

If you can’t get protection

Most people can’t get protected personal data, but you can still be much less visible:

• Remove yourself from Ratsit, MrKoll, Hitta and the others.
• Ask Google to remove the results.
• Ask your operator for an unlisted number.

Also read why your address is online, and who can get it from Skatteverket. More from Skatteverket and the police (both in Swedish).

A simplified explanation, not legal advice.

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