Norway Greenlights Testing of Controversial Surveillance System Despite Backlash

Using the system for “facilitated collection” of data would incur changes in the Intelligence Act, which was heavily criticized by the Police Security Service and the Attorney General. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority said it violated the constitution, and the country's largest association of academics warned of mass surveillance.

The Norwegian government has allowed the country's Intelligence Service (E-Tjenesten) to test a surveillance system that can capture large amounts of information about Norwegian citizens.

The Intelligence Service is meant to monitor threats against Norway from abroad. It is not allowed to monitor Norwegian citizens within the country's borders. However, the new system will make it possible to capture large amounts of data about Norwegian citizens as well, national broadcaster NRK reported.

Earlier this summer, the nation's Defense Ministry sent out a proposal for changes to the new Intelligence Act which features what has been referred to as “facilitated collection” and would allow the Intelligence Service to collect and store mass data communications. The law has not yet been introduced because, among other things, there are concerns it may violate Norway's human rights obligations.

However, the government has already allowed the Intelligence Service to start developing and testing the system. Norway's Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram of the Center Party defended the system by pointing out how parlous security is at present.

“Today's serious security policy situation indicates that the need for organized collection is greater than ever,” Gram said, as quoted by NRK.

The use of the surveillance system has been met with opposition from Norway's academia. The Technical and Natural Sciences Association (Tekna), Norway's largest association of academics with 97,000 members, voiced its criticism and vice-president Elisabet Haugsbø warned of “unfortunate consequences” for the Norwegian population.

According to Tekna, greenlighting the system before planned consultations have been finished, or placing the entire legislation in place, undermines due process. Haugsbø stressed that the system can potentially contribute to mass surveillance of Norwegian citizens and reacted strongly to the fact that professional communities which ask critical questions are being ignored.

Previously, the new Intelligence Act received a lot of criticism from, among others, the Police Security Service (PST), the Attorney General and the Norwegian Editors' Association. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority went so far as to suggest that it violated the Constitution.

The Defense Ministry cited an instruction that stipulates that the data gathered cannot be used for intelligence analysis, but only for test and development purposes and stressed that facilitated collection will “help ward off the most advanced threats against Norway in the digital space”.