Swedish Government making too many moves that has impact on integrity?
I have in this blog several times mentioned I think proposals from the Swedish Government – specifically Department of Justice – has been in favor of law enforcement mechanisms without checking what impact the proposals has on privacy and integrity. Will the proposal actually help law enforcement agencies reach the targeted goal? What impact on privacy and integrity does it carry? Is it worth it? Is there other mechanisms that does not have as severe impact that can help as much (or even better)?
On Dec 2, Integritetsskyddskommittén delivered their proposal SOU 2007:22 to the minister of justice, Beatrice Ask. No summary exists in English (yet). In short, the report say that they want a new addition to the constitution so that the society is forbidden to, in secret, survey individuals. The reason they come with this drastic proposal must be because they have seen the same things I (and many with me - specifically Oscar Swartz) have seen.
That an investigation suggest that the constitution is changed because the government is pushing too extreme proposals for legislation is interesting, and regardless of what happens with this proposal, I hope Department of Justice start listen to people mentioning impact on privacy and integrity.
The newspaper Riksdag och Departement wites in an article:
Integritetsskyddskommittén vill införa ett principiellt förbud för samhället att i hemlighet “övervaka eller kartlägga” enskildas personliga förhållanden. R&D har tagit del av kommitténs förslag. Integritetsskyddskommittén konstaterade i ett delbetänkande att lagstiftaren fäster alltför ringa vikt vid integritetsintresset när nya lagar antas. I stället har bland annat effektiviteten i brottsbekämpningen framhållits.I förra veckan justerade kommittén sitt slutförslag. Enligt förslaget ska ett nytt stycke läggas till i regeringsformen. I 2 kapitlet där medborgarnas grundläggande fri och rättigheter, som till exempel yttrandefriheten, räknas upp vill kommittén i paragraf 6 skriva in ett skydd för integriteten.