So sorry to have to say this, but the register has it wrong. The measure passed (!) by a vote of 143 for to 138 against, with 1 abstaining and 67 absent. This according to (among others) Aftonbladet (Swedish newspaper, on-line edition, http://www.aftonbladet.se/, search term: signalspaningslagen).
Yours mournfully,
Ann R. Saetnan
________________________________
Fra: Research and teaching on surveillance på vegne av Askwith, Bob
Sendt: to 19.06.2008 17:57
Til: [log in to unmask]
Emne: Re: Swedish surveillance act to be accepted on June 18th
Rejected! (for now)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/sweden_fails_on_snoop_john_b/
Cheers,
Bob.
-----Original Message-----
From: Research and teaching on surveillance [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ola Svenonius
Sent: 16 June 2008 12:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Swedish surveillance act to be accepted on June 18th
Dear list members
The Swedish parliament is voting on a bill on Wednesday that will allow the agency FRA (National Defence Radio Establishment, not a military institution despite the name), to wiretap all communications and their content that crosses Swedish borders. The Act seems to be similar to the UK RIPA from 2000. The surveillance includes basically every e-mail and internet activity, because of the international routing of virtually all internet communications. It will be carried out autonomously by FRA and according to requests by other agencies which will require a permit given by the Swedish Defence Intelligence Board. The proposal is rather juicy with all kinds of loopholes and uncertainties that will render these "privacy safeguards" ineffective. The debate here in Sweden was sparked off rather late, only a week or so before the voting, and revolves around the Orwelian quality of the FRA proposal and the coercion of MPs by their parties to vote along the party line.
The scope of intentions is one of the broadest that I have seen: Besides the obvious intentions to fight international terrorism and organised crime, the proposal also mentions the safeguarding of the national IT-infrastructure integrity (the Swedish politicians all remember the Russian attacks on Estonia last year) plus the following list of threats that this surveillance should attend to: "different types of crises in domestic supply [energy, food etc], ecological imbalaces, environmental threats, ethnic or religious conflicts, large refugee or migrant movements and economic challenges such as currency and interest speculation" (Government proposal 2006/07:63. p. 16f).
The bill and the proposal can be found at "http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c6/07/83/67/2ee1ba0a.pdf" (unfortunately only in Swedish)
PC world has covered the subject recently, I pasted the article below.
Have a great midsummer's eve and a nice summer!
Kind regards,
Ola Svenonius
Swedish Gov't to Vote on Allowing E-mail, Phone Monitoring
Sweden is about to vote on a bill that will allow local authorities to monitor all types of wired traffic, including e-mails, fax messages and telephone calls.This week, the Swedish Parliamentary Committee on Defense approved the bill, which was published last year. The Committee also said more safeguards are needed, including additional details on when the data can be used, how it should be destroyed and who can access it.
On June 17 the bill will be debated and finally voted on in the Swedish Parliament. Its detractors see the vote in the Parliament as a watershed moment.
"We are about to give up an important right, not to be monitored by the state unless there are suspicions of serious crimes," said Maria Rankka, head of Swedish think thank Timbro.
One problem is that the lawmakers assume people in charge always have good intentions, and history has shown that is simply not the case, according to Rankka. The bill -- which has been dubbed "En anpassad försvarsunderrättelseverksamhet", or Adapted Military Intelligence Service, and nicknamed Lex Orwell -- will let the Swedish Defense Radio Establishment listen in on wired traffic that passes Swedish borders, to protect against foreign threats. Authorities can turn to the Defense Radio Establishment when they need information.
The bill also regulates wireless monitoring already conducted by the Defense Radio Establishment. The law is needed to keep up with technological advancements, according its proponents. This is the same reason U.K. authorities gave when the Home Office in May announced the need for new telecommunications legislation.
But that doesn't hold up, according to Rankka. "No one has shown this method to be effective, the criminals will always be one step ahead, and normal users will be caught in the middle," she said.
Even though its still only a bill, it has already had repercussions. Last year TeliaSonera in Finland moved e-mail servers and 500,000 accounts from Sweden to Finland. The move was finalized in April this year. "We received very strong recommendations from Finnish authorities to make the move, and decided to follow them. Users were also worried," said Ahti Martikainen, communications manager at TeliaSonera Finland.
Carriers are generally against the bill, since it will require them to spend about 75 million Swedish kronor (US$12.5 million), excluding maintenance costs, according to estimates from the Swedish Department of Defense.
It is still uncertain what will happen in the parliament. If all members of the opposition parties vote against the bill, only four members of the majority coalition need to turn it down for the bill to be rejected, according to Swedish Internet activist Oscar Swartz.
"Everybody knows that there are more than four members who believe the idea is foolish, but it remains to be seen if they will join the party line or not," Swartz said.
If parliament approves the bill, the law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2009. The Defense Radio Establishment will get access to the data from Oct. 1, according to the Parliamentary Committee on Defense.
Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146750/swedish_govt_to_vote_on_allowing_email_phone_monitoring.html
---
Ola Svenonius
Doctoral Student
Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS)
Södertörns University College
S-141 89 Huddinge
Phone. +46 8 608 45 17
Fax. +46 8 608 41 70
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.sh.se/beegs
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