Submission + - The Swedish government wants to spy on Russia (wordpress.com) 1
onsdag writes: "There has been a lot of noise among Swedish bloggers, and recently in Swedish media, about a new law that will allow the intelligence agency FRA (Försvarets Radio-Anstalt, the Defense Radio Department) to search through all internet and phone traffic in cables that cross the national border, and force ISPs and phone network operators to install tap points in their networks. They would only be allowed to search for traffic that was related to foreign affairs and immediately destroy any internal Swedish communication that crossed the border by accident (or by design, considering the international nature of the internet).
Many of the critics have been pointing out that it is impossible to differentiate "internal" and "external" traffic, but the FRA and proponents of the new law have been assuring everyone that they are not interested in Swedish traffic. It looks like they are probably telling the truth about that.
The law explicitly allows FRA to use any gathered intelligence in trade with other intelligence agencies (probably primarily USA, since an agreement was signed between the two countries last spring about enhanced intelligence cooperation). So what's in Swedish internet traffic that would be interesting to USA? Russian internet traffic, it turns out."
Many of the critics have been pointing out that it is impossible to differentiate "internal" and "external" traffic, but the FRA and proponents of the new law have been assuring everyone that they are not interested in Swedish traffic. It looks like they are probably telling the truth about that.
The law explicitly allows FRA to use any gathered intelligence in trade with other intelligence agencies (probably primarily USA, since an agreement was signed between the two countries last spring about enhanced intelligence cooperation). So what's in Swedish internet traffic that would be interesting to USA? Russian internet traffic, it turns out."
