Switzerland Kissing Privacy Goodbye with New Surveillance Laws

Ah Switzerland… that amazing country that gives us the finest watches and simply the best chocolates in the world, that same country that even calls people to poll to decide what bagel the stores are going to sell the next day. Although this time the voting was regarding something quite important and essential, less than half of the country’s population really gave any concerns about it. The Swiss government wanted to know people’s opinions on… pretty much getting spied upon. Unbelievably, 65% of the 43% of the total population who voted agreed to extend Swiss spy agencies the authority to monitor internet traffic, tap phones, deploy spy drones and hack foreign computer systems to combat militant attacks. In other words, online privacy in Switzerland will soon be a thing of the past.

The new world order

Truth being told the poll was made in order to prevent terrorism and to have a pretext for online spying of potentially dangerous individuals as the Swiss government says this will only be used once a month and only to monitor specific high risk suspects. Nevertheless this will indeed throw any individual’s privacy out of the window since… well… who can trust what any government says? “With this law, we’re leaving the basement and coming up to the ground floor by international standards” said Swiss Defense Minister Guy Parmelin. According to opponents of the law, this is a danger to the country’s usual neutrality, one that will set a precedent for mass surveillance. Amnesty International also stood its ground alongside those who do not agree with this measure as stated that these new laws will result in “disproportionate” levels of surveillance in the Alpine lands.