If you care about your online privacy then you’ve likely already heard of countries where the state likes to know every online step of their citizens and take restrictive actions further, like banning particular foreign services. Because this imposes a limit on the online freedom of their citizens, people turn to circumventing tools like proxies or VPNs. But then, restrictive regimes strike back once again by blocking VPNs too, serving as an example to other countries, even those who are known for supporting free speech and online freedom. And that’s precisely what might happen in Sweden as the country is looking to adopt new measures to tighten the grip on data retention and VPNs.
This is quite an unexpected move from a country known for its freedom and liberal values. The center of the situation comes from leaked proposals by the Swedish ISP Bahnhof, in which it is stated that the Swedish government is looking to extend data retention time up to ten months. This represents a four month increase in the time that ISPs must already obey by when keeping records of the online activities of its users.
In addition to this VPN users also suffer from these new leaked measures that the government is planning, as the Bahnhof report states that ISPs will start logging the “first activation of anonymization services”, a fancy way to say that these companies will now know who uses VPNs and when they use it. Though users can still keep their online traffic away from snoopers under VPN protection, since records will be kept of clients turning this protection on the ISPs will know exactly who uses the software. And as a consequence, one of the strongest pillars of these services will be partially destroyed: anonymity.
Likewise, IP address sharing is also targeted in the new regulations. As a last resort, this would ultimately mean that law enforcement agencies would be able to link any online activity to a specific user, which would be another attack on the online freedom of Swedish citizens.
The Bahnhof leaks come at a time when the world is more and more concerned over online privacy. And considering all the different countries approving new restrictive measures to fight online freedom, is it foolish to think how a liberal country like Sweden should be an example for other European nations?
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