Extended surveillance license for Simonsen
The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs earlier this week asked the Data Inspectorate to prolong the lawyer firm Simonsen's license for logging and retrieving personal information on file-sharers.
Secretary of State, Wegard Harsvik from the Labour Party, said they urged the Inspectorate to extend Simonsen's license. As of 2006, the private lawyer firm Simonsen have had a special permit for logging sensitive information connected to IP-addresses frequently used for illegal file-sharing. In April, the Postal- and Telecommunications Supervisory granted the private firm permission to retrieve sensitive personal data on the users of the IP addresses.
The Data Inspectorate has said on multiple occasions that such a license is highly problematic in regards to privacy and that it might be considered an intrusion in the private sphere. They have also encourged politicians to have more public debate on the issue, and they say to Teknisk Ukeblad that the Ministry has failed to organize both meetings and meet their demands for further debate.
They are now urged, by the Ministry, to extend Simonsen's license for logging IP addresses before it is clear whether Simonsen is granted access to retrieve private customer information about the user's without needing to go through the police or juridical powers.
It's problematic that the Ministry of Culture is outsourcing detective work to a private lawyer firm. Not only because they are allowed to retrieve confidential information on the ISP's customers and the users of given IP addresses, but because this creates a severe democratic problem.
We cannot allow a privately held firm to perform the duties of the police. There have already been several ugly episodes of Simonsen abusing their power, for instance when they sent out threatening letters directly to the customers demanding they signed a contract admitting guilt on all charges.
While I think fighting a problem that will, of evolutionary and technological reasons, never disappear is a waste of resources, it is at least important that the prosecutors are given a hard time. They should not be allowed to gather their information by means that are unethical and which threatens our privacy.
I hope the Data Inspectorate will disregard the Ministry's plead for extending Simonsen's license, and that they will do what is right and needed in a Rechtsstaat, namely leaving the policing to the police.
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