Tekna claims once again that the government is introducing a mass surveillance system with the new e-law, this time in a post on news Ytring. That a claim is repeated does not make it more true: It is still not true that Norwegians will be exposed to mass surveillance with the new e-law. What the law allows for is storing metadata about communications that cross national borders. Data about Norwegian communications will be filtered out as far as possible. Data that cannot be filtered out will be mass stored, but searching the storage requires approval from a court. The content of the communication will not be saved. The system is to be used for foreign intelligence, and not to monitor its own population. It is a basic prerequisite. The criticism from the National Audit Office that Tekna highlights is serious, and is being followed up in the Norwegian Armed Forces. This criticism does not apply to the system that the E-service is now in the process of building up. The system for organized collection has not yet been put into use. The system has a number of security mechanisms around it. The EU judgments that Tekna refers to have been assessed, and the Norwegian system for facilitated collection is within the limits drawn up by the EU. We agree that both the EOS committee and the courts must be strengthened to be able to follow up on the new e-law. This work is underway. The authorities are concerned with protecting people’s privacy. At the same time, we are concerned with protecting Norway against threats from outside. This is a demanding balancing act, and we believe that we have found a good balance. Good intelligence is crucial for Norway’s defense and security. We have to follow what is happening around us, also in the digital space. The intelligence service must help to protect our society and our values against threats from outside. The new e-Act will facilitate this. The new law will strengthen our national intelligence capability. Today, we are dependent on other countries with similar systems sharing information with us. We will discover more of the threats directed at us from abroad, and we will be better able to counter them. We are better protected against digital threats, but also other threats that can be detected in the digital space, such as espionage, sabotage, hacking and terrorism. Follow the debate:
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No, there will not be mass surveillance of Norwegian citizens – Statement
