Revelations from the German-speaking Swiss newspaper Republik show that the country’s secret services have put the entire population under surveillance.
With the development of communications technologies, the secret services of major countries have more and more tools at their disposal to carry out their surveillance missions. Some, like Pegasus, consist of instruments used to spy on specific people, while others, more invasive, can simply bug an entire country. Extremely problematic systems, discovered with Edward Snowden’s leaks in 2013, which were also set up in Switzerland.
Surveillance similar to that denounced by Edward Snowden
In 2013, the world discovered with the revelations of Edward Snowden that the NSA, the American spy agency responsible for signals intelligence, was carrying out mass surveillance on the country’s citizens. A dangerous precedent, often invoked when a country wanted to improve its interception capabilities using new legislation.
Thus, in 2016, when Switzerland voted for a new federal law on intelligence by referendum, many voices were concerned about a similar drift. A drift which is confirmed today with documents (official correspondence and legal files) obtained by the German-speaking media Republic.
These show that all of the country’s internet communications are put under surveillance. Like the system set up a decade earlier by the NSA, as soon as one of the keywords established by the services is discovered in communications, the entire message is sent to the electronic operations center of the federal Department of Defense. defense. It is then decrypted, before being transmitted, if necessary, to the relevant intelligence teams.
A broken promise?
The system is sufficiently established that the Department of Defense has admitted, in court documents consulted, that communications “ servants » were well read. Even more contentious, the surveillance would not only be massive, but also particularly indiscriminate. So, as pointed out Republicthe secret nature of traditionally protected correspondence, such as exchanges between lawyers and their clients, or journalists and their sources, is endangered.
The news risks being all the more controversial because at the time of the vote, several senior leaders of the Federal Intelligence Service had publicly assured that the law would not lead to surveillance, that it was not planned, and that no Swiss citizen would be spied on, whether on national territory or abroad. The explanatory document sent with the voting material also indicated that this regulation was “ so narrow that this means can only be used against specific threats and comprehensive surveillance of all citizens is excluded. » The result seems to be slightly different.
Source : Republic
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