Finnish Communications Now Subject to Swedish Snooping
Image: YLE Uutisgrafiikka
Sweden has begun monitoring communications traffic that passes through its borders. By some accounts up to 90 percent of Finland's mobile and Internet traffic travels through Sweden.
Sweden's defence forces radio unit FRA began monitoring telecommunications traffic at midnight on December first. They search for several thousands of key words and figures. If a message is flagged as containing a suspect term, it is saved and inspected separately.
The FRA will also be monitoring connections to websites it thinks are suspect.
The highly controversial legislation was passed in the name of national security, with a close vote of 158-153. One protection of privacy that was added to the law was that the Defence Forces are not allowed to monitor traffic whose sender and receiver are both in Sweden - only data transmitted across the border is open to snooping.
Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications set up a website to advise people in Finland on how to protect their communications.
YLE