Sweden on Track to Becoming the Next Surveillance Society?

The administrators of ThePirateBay know all to well what it’s like to be spied on. Though if security legislators get their way, the MPAA might not need to hire investigators to keep an eye on them according to EDRI, a digital rights advocacy group in Europe.

If there’s anything the raids on ThePirateBay proved, it’s that digital rights activism is very present in Sweden. It’s activism like this that may be only recently rivaled by Germany where thousands took to the streets to protest data retention laws.

Recently, an editorial by the staff at EDRI highlighted some disturbing trends over in Sweden – namely what is known as the Lex Orwell law which is, interestingly enough, seems very appropriately named. It would basically allow the worlds 5th largest supercomputer to turn its attention to Swedens own citizens for monitoring purposes.

How is this possible? Apparently, there is an “NSA Franchise” known as the FRA which is basically the The National Defence Radio Establishment. It is an institution that played a roll in the cold war, but currently struggling to stay in business today. Apparently, the developments have already sparked controversy. From the editorial:

While national security and “state secret privileges” are complex matters of parliamentary checks and balances, the question is if Lex Orwell got it right. Nobody in the public sphere seems to think so. In answers from eight heavyweight institutions to the government’s hearing on Lex Orwell it is said it is “in breach of ECHR”, “like wire-tapping without a court order”, “general surveillance (…) of the content of telephone calls and messages”, “lacking in understanding (…) of privacy”, “massive wire-tapping”, “seriously flawed” and that “the State is acquiring the telecommunications traffic”. If this critique was not enough, former director of the FRA himself says FRA activity is in breach of European law. To the layman the set-up seems indistinguishable from what allegedly is happening in the USA where AT&T is accused of “violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans’ communications”.

Somewhere in all of this, someone from the US entertainment industry is licking their chops over a law that would push the Swedish country into “total surveillance” since the country is moving towards a society that is one pen-stroke away from making file-sharing impossible – all paid for by the taxpayers themselves. No need to hire any more Private Investigators anymore, the local government will foot the bills and efforts from now on.

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5. Swedish MP – FRA Suspected of Already Beginning Surveillance Program