Sweden is going to hell [Sweden Data Storage law]

Post by **ayu** » 12 Dec 2008, 02:53

I am seriously considering to leave this country when I finish my studies, and only return to visit relatives. Well ok I might not go THAT far ^^

Anyway, a new law has been suggested by the government called the "Data storage law", and it means that all E-mail, sms, fax and phone conversations that are inside of Sweden (as in originating from within the country) are going to be stored, so that the government and the police have access to it.

And well, I'm speechless ... I mean if they actually do this, I will have to encrypt and scramble EVERYTHING that I do. Not that I do anything awfully illegal (anymore), but it's the principle, I simply don't want a bunch of corrupted old politicians with an IQ of -NULL to have access to my private messages and conversations. Why can't we have Monarchy, and a really kick ass king who cares about the country : (

Post by **bad_brain** » 12 Dec 2008, 04:35

data storage of that kind is already done since a year in the whole European Union, because it will help to "arrest those evil terrorists" by capturing their "bombing tomorrow at 10pm, we'll meet as subway station X <3"-emails....

check if your beloved politicians were as stupid as the german ones, by saying "such data is only allowed to be utilized in case of heavy crimes" they made it kinda illegal for those infamous media industry lawyers looking for copyright violations to sniff around in P2P networks, because in theory the data is not allowed to be used. I said "in theory" because there was no test case yet.

n3rd · Post by **n3rd** » 12 Dec 2008, 05:28

sue sweden for ruining privacy?

Post by **Big-E** » 12 Dec 2008, 05:28

Cats, got a spot for you at my place so as long as you bring three hot swedish blonde chicks with you. That should not be hard...however, I think you will find the saying "grass is always greener on the other side" very applicable in this situation, those "laws" exist all over..we're just not aware of them. I am quite confident that data is being recorded all the time in North America, Canada is not immune to the policies of the United States..90% of traffic in the states goes through Level3 communications - check out affiliations between the Government and Level3. Its a scary scary world on the interwebs, but what can ya do?

Post by **DNR** » 12 Dec 2008, 10:28

Consider this. To capture all internet forms of communication would be like trying to put a firehose in to a bucket. You are talking about terabytes of data in just a few short years. To make it easy to search and classify each piece of email, IM, internet activity HOW will they inspect and categorize each piece? Imagine if you put a small screen filter in front of that firehose, the pressure of water will blow the screen out unless you make it big enough. To make it big enough to allow traffic to flow unimpeded, you cannot inspect every drop of water.

The plan pretty much failed in the USA because they realized this. The internet traffic database at best could be mined for known, specific peoples, but not to filter keywords or even point of origin. The research would be time-delayed as it passed through the list of government organizations pushing paper and stamping it "Not our Problem".

So the point is, unless you pop up on the radar of your local authorities, no one is going to read your emails. If you encrypt your transmissions, its more likely they won't have the time to expend on a 'nobody' email.
Security is up to you, how much work do you want to do to secure yourself?

BTW I didn't mean Cat was a nobody, everyone knows he is somebody

Sprint is to the US what level 3 is to Canada.

DNR

Swan · Post by **Swan** » 12 Dec 2008, 13:04

My personal take, is to behave like the traditional Sicilian mafia dons.

These men, would work in the fields all day, planting crops and tilling the land, doing the menial work. They would wear crumpled clothes, hats of vintage origin and boast of their lack of education. Many were illiterate, and whenever the police raided their hideouts, who would be chosen? The man with the flashiest suit, the brightest badge, and widest smile.

The best possible protection is annoyminity.

Do not showboat, do not attract attention.

As soon as you encrypt data cats, that will make the government think "why"?

Hope this makes sense.

Post by **ayu** » 12 Dec 2008, 13:15

Yeah Swan it does (actually seen a movie where they said that ^^), but that doesn't matter, because they can't read it if it's good encryption ^^ so they can wonder all they want

Still_Learning · Post by **Still_Learning** » 12 Dec 2008, 20:04

you could look into stenography.. a hidden message in something that is very obvious and everyone sees (just not the hidden msg)

like see if you can find a hidden msg in this pic

str33tl0rd · Post by **str33tl0rd** » 13 Dec 2008, 01:07

hello all,
i found this in an interesting topic to actually have my say.
i agree to what most of you say...but just for an example lets look at the war in Iraq...those countries that attacked Iraq, went there because they accused that Iraq or Saddam had atomic activities going on and were planning an atomic bomb.but now it is clear that their accusations were false...so the reason why Iraq was attacked was terrorism. Okay...now this a similar case...all these laws are there to show the nation of those countries...that HEY LOOK WE ARE STILL FIGHTING TERRORISM...but really does that help to stop terrorism?
The people at suck-o are pretty open-minded...they know what is going on most of the time...but ya'll know that we are always counted as the outcasts.
From my experience, the majority of people have pride because of these laws, pride that "look this government is very secure against terrorism."
So in other words, these laws are a strategy for those governments to keep their people in their hands and have them support.

I hope i have not offended anybody...because my last political post got a few people offended.

Lyecdevf · Post by **Lyecdevf** » 13 Dec 2008, 06:31

Just because some one proposed a law it does not mean that it is going to become a law. First members of parliament have to vote for it and even than the president can veto it. I am not sure how exactly that works in Sweden. Any way all sorts of laws are proposed and not all get passed. Any member of parliament can propose a law. Heck, some one could propose a law that not truck would be allowed on the streets of Sweden and only the railway would be used to transport goods. A good law if you ask me but of course that would never work out and neither would this work out. They do not have any thing better to do than to propose laws. Just so that people do not forget about them. Heck maybe when the dust settles they are going to propose a law that would ban all underwear unless it was pink.

Post by **Lundis** » 15 Dec 2008, 02:45

Hmm all my internet traffic passes through Sweden so this would affect me as well

But do they really have the capacity to store all data?

Post by **ph0bYx** » 15 Dec 2008, 06:39

I don't think they'll be watching every conversation, email etc. only those with keywords like: terrorist, bombing etc. and people with good encryption aka cats

Post by **DNR** » 15 Dec 2008, 09:32

Exacty -the technology and ability to 'read' each email, IM, Chat convo does not exist. You would need a server farm as big as Google to handle something like that. Now, imagine if a 'anarchist' clogged the system by creating hot packets - packets loaded with keywords or point of origins, and made the system so busy it slows down. You slow it down enough, it'll never catch up.

DNR