Swedish government passed a law that allows eavesdropping of any communications that is passing the border. It means that any mail, or phone conversation may be read or listened to. Obviously, the announced argument is to fight terrorism. More than 1 millions Swedes protested by mail. They claim that is a blow to privacy.
More and more such types of laws are passed by many governments. Another example is the law that allows to open laptop at US borders (I will come back to it soon) Does fighting terrorism require to loose privacy? I doubt. There are two possibilities:
- Legislators believe that they will really fight terrorism with this type of method. This is probably wrong. We should stop to believe in the image of stupid terrorist. They will be able to use modern tools to hide the communication. They may encrypt mails or communications. Or even better, if they want to be stealthy, they may use stenography.
- Governments cannot on one hand claim they fear cyberterrorism that requires cyber attackers and in the other hand use methods that any beginner hacker could bypass.
- Or legislators do know it is snake oil. Then either they use it for theatrical security (to reassure Joe Sixpack), or for an hidden agenda.
According to you, which one is the good explanation?