Jun 08, 2022 08:00:00

Statistics Norway decides to collect data on 'who bought when, where and what products'

'Who, when, where, and what purchased' is data that is closely related to personal privacy, and even this alone may expose an individual's lifestyle and hobbies. In order to track the purchasing behavior of such people, the

Norwegian Bureau of Statistics has decided to collect 'total receipt data of major supermarket chains and payment processing data of more than 80% of transactions', and privacy experts have voiced opposition. Is up.

SSB krever å få vite nøyaktig hva nordmenn kjøper i matbutikken
https://nrkbeta.no/2022/05/28/ssb-krever-a-fa-vite-noyaktig-hva-nordmenn-kjoper-i-matbutikken/

Norway to Track All Supermarket Purchases --Life in Norway
https://www.lifeinnorway.net/norway-to-track-all-supermarket-purchases/

Norway is known as a 'big government' nation where the tax burden on the people is heavy but the social welfare is generous, but detailed data collection and analysis on the lives of the people are necessary to properly distribute the taxes. Therefore, in Norway, social security numbers are assigned to all citizens, and the Norwegian Statistics Bureau collects data such as address, income, criminal history, and education, and shares information with many public institutions.

And in 2022, the Statistics Norway ordered the major domestic supermarket chains Norges Gruppen, Coop , Bunnpris and Rema 1000 to 'share all receipt data' and 80% of purchase transactions. We also ordered the payment processor Nets to provide the data. This will allow the Statistics Norway to link receipts and settlement transactions for more than 70% of national grocery purchases.

The Norwegian Bureau of Statistics has been collecting data on purchasing behavior for the purpose of helping welfare policy, and in 2012, 3000 households were asked to make a 'detailed list of what they purchased', but this took time. In addition to this, there were many mistakes. Then, in 2013, the discussion of 'collecting digital trackers related to consumer purchasing behavior' began, and it was finally ordered to provide data to private companies.

Statistics Norway will create detailed household-level statistics based on the data collected, link factors such as region, income and education level to purchasing behavior and analyze the impact of each factor. On the other hand, he also argues that data collection is only for group-based analysis, not for retaining detailed individual data.

Although Norwegian citizens are already accustomed to government information gathering, some privacy experts are concerned about the trend towards increased data collection. Mona Naomi Lintvedt of the

University of Oslo points out that even if it is difficult to collect data from some households, it is disproportionate to collect data from all the people to improve it. The Norwegian Bureau of Statistics should consider collecting small amounts of data and also raises questions about limits on data retention periods.

Lisa Reutter, who studies public sector digitization and data use at Norwegian University of Science and Technology , said, 'We will use large amounts of digital data to enhance our government's ability to classify, predict and control citizens' behavior. The power balance of the nation will change. '

In response, Norwegian Statistics Bureau Ann-Kristin Brændvang argued that while the dissenting opinions were understandable, there were no other alternatives, and data collection of purchasing behavior for all citizens was not disproportionate as a statistical agency. .. It claims that the data collection and analysis by the Norwegian Bureau of Statistics outweighs the disadvantages to society. The Norwegian Statistical Office collects 1.6 billion transaction data annually, and basically does not delete the data based on the idea that the statistical information should be verifiable in the form of the original data over time. And that.

Privacy experts are not the only ones concerned about the data collection by the Norwegian Bureau of Statistics. The supermarket chain Norges Gruppen, who was ordered to share data, has appealed to the Norwegian Statistics Bureau's decision and said it has sought instructions from the Norwegian data protection authorities. The Coop is also considering appealing to data protection authorities, like Statistics Gruppen, while acknowledging that the Norwegian Bureau of Statistics has the basis for producing good statistics.