Why does Refapp use a publishing certificate instead of an IMY permit?

To lawfully present information relating to criminal offences, background screening providers in Sweden typically rely on either:

• A publishing certificate issued by the Swedish Authority for Press, Radio and Television, or

• A permit from the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY).

An IMY permit, however, comes with certain limitations. For example, information relating to criminal offences must follow the deletion (retention) periods of the Swedish criminal records register, and a specific necessity assessment must be carried out for each individual background check.

What does this mean in practice?

Extracts from the criminal records register maintained by the Swedish Police Authority are deleted after a certain period of time. This means that a person may have been convicted of serious offences without this information still appearing in the register.

If a background check is conducted under an IMY permit, it will in practice not reveal criminal history beyond the same time limits that apply to the criminal records register.

By relying on a publishing certificate, Refapp can therefore provide a more comprehensive picture of an individual’s potential criminal history than would be possible under an IMY permit framework.

Important to note

An IMY permit to process personal data relating to criminal offences applies only to the permit holder (the background screening provider), not to you as the employer ordering the background check.

This means that employers ordering background checks have the same legal conditions for processing data relating to criminal offences regardless of whether the provider relies on:

• A publishing certificate, or

• An IMY permit.