Although very little is being reported on it in international news, Sweden is currently proposing a new wiretap bill that could effect wire based communications around the world. The bill gives the National Defense Radio Establishment (or FRA in Swedish) the right to monitor all wire based communications in and out of the country, including packets of data which can be transmitted through multiple geographically dispersed hops before reaching their final destinations.

The National Defense Radio Establishment, despite its name, is actually a civilian agency, which according to an article in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, has been around since the Second World War. Its primary job was previously to monitor atmospheric traffic in and out of the country. With currently over 98% of all communications traffic being wire based such as the internet and VoIP the ruling and more conservative alliance in Swedish Parliament thinks it is a good idea to start monitoring net traffic as well.

The bill is close to not being enacted into law by the Swedish Parliament, requiring only 4 “no” votes from majority alliance members to not pass. Even the state-run telecommunications company Telia is concerned about the prospects of the new law. They have relocated their service out of the country to protect their Finnish customers.

Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer last year fired one of the first shots at the law by stating “The proposal stems from a tradition begun by Saudi Arabia and China and simply has no place in a Western democracy,”

Not only are telephones and e-mail at risk, but one other factor has not received much attention at all and that is file sharing. The well known torrent sharing site The Pirate Bay is operated by Swedes.

Could this be the end of one of the world’s largest torrent sharing sites? After all, it could mean big risks for those of us who like to download from the site. With the large amount of torrent sites being shut down, The Pirate Bay is one of the few who has dared to stand up to large corporations who have tried for years to shut them down. Take a look if you have the time, some of them are quite entertaining.