Swedish government admits tapping people's phones

The Swedish government is proposing new legislation to allow far-reaching surveillance aimed at protecting "national security", including monitoring phone calls and emails. In the debate around the unpopular bill, deputy prime minister Maud Olofsson admitted that the government has already been tapping citizen's phones for decades and that the law would simply formalise existing practice. Critics of the bill range from the left to the Swedish intelligence agency Sapo. The Local reported that Sapo's chief legal counsel Lars-Ake Johansson said the proposal "may lead to drastic violations of personal integrity".