The Swedish government has approved a law that allows its intelligence agency to intercept all international telephone calls, emails and faxes.

It was argued that the intelligence bureau needs the powers in order to combat threats to international security, which are increasingly co-ordinated via electronic communications.

The law has been berated as an invasion of privacy by critics including search giant Google, which sees it as part of a worrying global trend.

“By introducing these new measures, the Swedish government is following the examples set by governments ranging from China and Saudi Arabia to the US government’s widely criticised eavesdropping programme,” said Peter Fleischer, the company’s global privacy counsel.

It may clash with the European Data Protection Act, which forbids companies from making their customers’ data available to third parties without their consent.

Furthermore, the law may have ramifications for illegal downloading as The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular bit-torrent aggregation sites, which lets users know where to download films and music, is based there.

Further reading

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