PST will receive information from open sources – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
Today, I am not allowed by the Police Security Service (PST) to openly access information from, for example, online newspaper articles, open public registers, open discussions in social media, comments and blogs.
The Solberg government is now proposing an amendment to the law that allows for such content and storage for a larger 15 years.
– What will PST use this information for?
– They will use them to uncover terrorism, extreme extremes, to try everyday life for you and me, says Minister of Justice and Emergency Management Monica Mæland (H).
– Isn’t it a little uncomfortable then that PST should store information about people who do not need to have done something wrong?
– There is no question of any mass surveillance. There are debates, there are analyzers, there are posts that we can all retrieve and that we can all save, but which PST cannot. This means that you miss important information in a case where you may have suspicion or where you analyze and systematize and see that there are some common features, says Mæland.
She says this is information that can be important in uncovering, for example, terrorist acts in Norway. There is also information that often disappears quickly and if one can not store it.
This limits PST’s ability to map extreme digital networks and to uncover structured influence operations, foreign intelligence activities, and new and hitherto unknown threats.
PST wants
It is PST who has asked for the law to be changed. PST chief Hans Sverre Sjøvold points out that during the pandemic they have seen an increase in some right-wing extremist areas.
– We do not have a full overview of what is displayed online, because we do not have the opportunity to save those who then report on these extreme platforms. That is our problem.
– Why is this so important to you?
– Because the activity we need to gain insight into to prevent terrorism, it is no longer in the streets. It is on the internet, says Sjøvold.
When asked why information must be stored for fifteen years, the PST manager answers.
– To be able to analyze and find trends over time.
Only specially designated persons at PST shall have access to the stored information. Private calls, emails or other encrypted information should not be collected.
The Bar Association: – Quite violent
The Bar Association says they will properly review the bill and write a consultation response, but are already critical.
– Based on what is described now, this will include everything we people write in comments, on Facebook or other places where there are ongoing debates. With today’s technology, PST will be able to scrape and systematically store everything that is written by all of us in a database with them. It is obviously quite violent, says Jon Wessel-Aas who is the leader of the Norwegian Bar Association.
He says people then have to reckon with the fact that everything they write in a comment field, more or less considered, will be stored at PST, for some possible future use, even if you can choose to delete it yourself. You may be confronted with that many years later.
– It has a privacy page, it will be an indirect and large personal register of what people have said and meant. But it will also obviously have a cooling effect on freedom of expression, that people will refuse to participate in public debates in open forums. And perhaps those who PST is most looking for will go even more under the digital world to put it that way, with encrypted services and discussion forums that are much more difficult for them to have an overview of and thus work against their purpose, says Wessel- Aas to NRK.
PST: – Must be purpose-driven
PST chief Hans Sverre Sjøvold says he understands the objections, but says the collection and storage should be purpose-driven.
– We do not want to have an overview of the various debates that take place in Norwegian society, which definitely do not concern our mission, he says before he ends.
– But it must be possible to discuss privacy and security in the same room. Because the state that is to ensure the privacy of the citizens must also ensure the safety of the citizens.
New government can withdraw the proposal
The bill is probably one of the last outgoing Minister of Justice Monica Mæland sends out for consultation before she resigns from the rest of the government. She thinks it is not problematic that she sends this out now.
– I do not see that this is very politically controversial. I probably rather see that the Storting has also asked if PST has the authority they need to do a good job. But a new government is completely free to withdraw the bill if they so wish, says Mæland.
The Labor Party and the Center Party say that they can not comment on individual cases while they are in government negotiations. SV in particular did not comment on the bill until it was sent out for consultation.
The consultation deadline is set for 7 January next year.