Massive Backlash Against Sweden's Internet Spying Bill

from the and-the-response? dept

Tue, Jul 8th 2008 2:14pm — Mike Masnick

We were surprised that politicians in Sweden approved a highly questionable bill that allowed rather widespread spying on all sorts of internet communications, despite widespread protests. Of course, now that the bill has become law, it seems that the protests are only getting much, much louder, going beyond the initial group of bloggers complaining to the mainstream press, and including large companies like Google and Telia moving servers out of Sweden to protect their users. Plus, nearby Belgium is threatening to sue, pointing out that Belgian citizens may be spied on without any apparent reason. Amazingly, the politicians who approved this bill are staying largely silent, despite the growing clamor about it. They originally tried to brush off the complaints from "spirited amateurs" who just need to just need to "calm down." But that doesn't seem to be working very well.

While it's unclear what will happen here, this is just the latest in a long line of recent efforts to bring together people to call attention to questionable political moves that politicians in the past have been able to sneak through with little public scrutiny. While there is always some risk of misdirecting the potential "mob mentality" that can arise in these situations, it should make politicians start to think twice before believing they can just sneak through any law.

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Filed Under: backlash, surveillance, sweden, wiretapping

14 Comments

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Ron Paul, 8 Jul 2008 @ 2:21pm

It's not "mob mentality"...
It's called "Blow back"
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2008 @ 2:34pm

Mob = La Casa Nostra
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2008 @ 2:41pm

Big Brothers
The ruling elite in ALL countries will keep trying to create Big Brothers, arm-in-arm, to ensure they remain elite and in charge.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2008 @ 2:52pm

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
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piin4mo4oO/dhJFpeD+5 XnpFvYCprFQWZDAUp/zD1RQYqOBZXyLUIAeUF2LyGPll
UBlMMe0E27RYjfSPnZBvHuGlIw==
=Ls+6
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jul 2008 @ 3:26pm

As subtly noted in the previous post, most internet exchanges will be encrypted.

Sweden dropped the ball on this one.

What's next? Opening mail - like they do for criminals in prison?
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JMuniz3, 8 Jul 2008 @ 3:47pm

Spying!
Why politicians' feel the need to spy on the people they represent and are supposed to protect will never make sense to me. Do they feel that we are children that must be protected at all costs without our knowledge or approval. Politicians need to realize that the kind of control they strive for will never be allowed by any of their citizens. Any person that allows that kind of state control is truly living with their head in the sand. This law in Sweden whether it had good intentions or malicious intent should never have been passed. Common sense trumps any wishful thinking or bad ideas before such thoughts become action and then eventually the evil that is documented throughout history in the name of security and harmony.
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Jeff, 8 Jul 2008 @ 6:00pm

Do they feel that we are children that must be protected at all costs without our knowledge or approval.
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Jeff, 8 Jul 2008 @ 6:01pm

Do they feel that we are children that must be protected at all costs without our knowledge or approval.

Yes.

(sorry for DPing, Mike)
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Jesper, 9 Jul 2008 @ 12:27am

European geography
"Nearby country Belgium"

'Nearby' as in you have to travel through both Denmark and Germany to get there :-)
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Niklas R, 9 Jul 2008 @ 3:59am

"'Nearby' as in you have to travel through both Denmark and Germany to get there :-)"

'Nearby' as in you can drive there in a day from southern Sweden -- the distance by car between Malm� and Brussels is less than 1000 km.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2008 @ 4:40am

Re:
AES encryption is good.

I like the way it works, but Private Keys are only as good as those who secret the keys.
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jj_frap, 9 Jul 2008 @ 5:05am

They voted in a conservatwit government and now they have to pay the piper. Poor Swedes.
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jj_frap, 9 Jul 2008 @ 5:06am

I feel your pain: Our right and centrist parties in Canada have had 20 years to protect customers from cell phone gouging and abusive ISP policies and have done nothing...And now things get dicey here. :-(
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The Admiral, 10 Jul 2008 @ 6:23am

Re: Spying!
Governments have been spying on its citizens for decades. We catch them at it a few times but they have complete access to every bit of info about us. All we can do is watch what we say & do, & encrypt everything. Make them work for it !
The kicker... It's our tax money they use against us. :(
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