used to think Scandinavia was made up of FREE countries ...

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Randall Webmail [rvh40 () insightbb com]
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 3:50 AM
To: dewayne () warpspeed com; David Farber; johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com
Subject: I used to think Scandinavia was made up of  FREE countries ...

FRA has the 5th fastest computer in the world and will use it to
monitor all internet traffic going in and out of Sweden:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_National_Defence_Radio_Establishment


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article//swedish_govt_to_vote_on_allowing_email_phone_monitoring.html
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.


-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com