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Today Bahnhof, the Swedish “Free Speech” Internet carrier, announced that they have a Plan B against what they and this Foundation consider being illegally enforced data retention in Sweden.

Yes, we have developed a service for Bahnhof called LEX Integrity which permits its customers to create a free account and surf via the VPN servers that are owned and managed by 5th of July Foundation.

Bahnhof will have to log data about their clients from November 24, i.e. what IP-address each client on their network is allocated each time the log on.

When a Bahnhof customer wants to surf via our servers they connect via PPTP. We at the foundation have no idea about who these customers are. We do not have any information about them, no name or address. We just check whether this (for us) unknown surfer should be permitted to connect via our servers.

When they surf via LEX Integrity they share IP addresses out towards the Internet. Many users can have the same address at the same time. As a provider of this service we do not have to retain data. Even if we would have to, there would be no useful information to be had from us.

The Foundation uses its own hardware and own technicians. Bahnhof has no access to our machines, they have no way of knowing what their customers are doing after handing them over to our servers.

We hereby invite other ISP:s to use similar bulk services. Please contact the chairman of the 5th of July Foundation for a quote. 

We have already been running more advanced VPN services since summer 2013.

The Foundation also runs a free public safe chat server that is open for anyone to use. You and your friends just have to create accounts and start chatting. Please use OTR encryption. 

5th of July Foundation has now received a written and signed confirmation that EU has registered our complaint against the Kingdom of Sweden for enforcing data retention, thereby being in breach of The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, articles 7 and 8, ‘Respect for private and family life’ and ‘Protection of personal data’.

Here is the confirmation letter from EU (PDF) with a case number (in Swedish).

Read about our complaint here: We urge EU to act against Sweden’s illegal data retention!

5th of July Foundation uses income from its paid services, like Integrity.st, to pay its technicians, for hardware, and so forth.

Those who use our paid services can rest assured that they do indeed contribute to the causes of the foundation. We are not here to make a profit: Instead we use all incomes and resources to contribute to a better and freer internet.

Sometimes we get requests for help and for obvious reasons we do not publish exactly whom we are helping with what. But this is an authentic request for free Integrity.st accounts that was handed to us via our board member Professor Love Ekenberg, who has wide international contacts.

We were happy to help these university students in a country with restrictions on internet use, and in fact it is our paying customers that makes this possible:

I am sure prof. Ekenberg he has explained to you the difficulty we are having here accessing scientific journals, education materials, and many other resources. He has informed me that you are willing to help us out by setting up and sponsoring some accounts. We are really grateful and appreciate your kind support and generosity. We have about ## PhD and more than ### Masters students. Our financial resources are very limited and your support of some accounts is of immense help. At the same time we don’t want to burden you, so we welcome your help even if it is for a few accounts and we can discuss means to have access for all our students.

Our technicians set up and manage free, public services like our secure chat server. Read about it and follow the instructions here at https://5july.org/jabber/ and start chatting!

5th of July Foundation has recently accepted donations of used hardware from trusted sources, something we appreciate very much. This will make it possible for us to offer more public services. We hope to announce several of those here later.

5th of July Foundation is also proud to provide sponsorships that makes it a little easier for activists to do what they burn for. Our first sponsorship is to give HAX some freedom to be “Your Watchdog on Privacy, Liberty and Human Rights” at https://HAX.5july.org/

Today we invite the public to use our secure chat server (XMPP, “jabber”). Make sure to use OTR encryption.

Here you find information on how to get started: https://5july.org/jabber/

Sweden is now acting against telecom and internet carriers that do follow EU law on traffic data retention.

Law-abiding companies are faced with fines. Ultimately their existence could be threatened although they do nothing wrong.

5th of July Foundation, together with Bahnhof, the well-known Swedish “free-speech” network operator now urges the EU Commission to investigate and take action against their member state Sweden.

Details are found in the press release below. Here is information in Swedish.

Internet profiles reporting Swedish failure to comply with EU Court ruling on Data Retention, calling on EU Commission to take urgent action

Today Bahnhof, the renowned Swedish network operator and internet carrier joins forces with 5th of July Foundation to urge the EU Commission to initiate proceedings against the Kingdom of Sweden for blatantly ignoring the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union on April 8, 2014, which declared the Data Retention Directive invalid. Sweden now fails to fulfil its obligations according to The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, articles 7 and 8, ‘Respect for private and family life’ and ‘Protection of personal data’.

Telecom and Internet carriers that do protect those EU rights now find themselves having conditional fines imposed upon them by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority. If they persist they face enforced closure.

– We will fight in Swedish courts to the end but this is not about Bahnhof and our rights. It is about every citizen’s human rights. Bahnhof has always stood up for privacy of communications. We do not intend to retain traffic data about our customers and we are confident that we have the backing of the EU Charter and Court of Justice. We urge the EU Commission to swiftly investigate.

– This is not only a domestic issue, says Oscar Swartz, Chairman of 5th of July Foundation. Every person who visits Sweden and uses a smartphone and every person who communicates with someone in Sweden is illegally registered right now. This is why we ask EU to act.

Sweden was the most active country in pushing through the Data Retention Directive and most virulent when it came to demanding control over every person’s use of the internet. Sweden’s Minister for Justice, Social Democrat Thomas Bodström, required that every URL and website that people visited should be stored, as well as all peer-to-peer communication like chatting and file-sharing, but his hawkish line was supported by very few other member states.

Sweden’s current Minister for Justice, Beatrice Ask of the Moderate Party, was one of his foremost critics.

– Yet Ms. Ask turned 180 degrees and made it possible for authorities to use retained data for every petty offence there is. This is a gross violation of the purpose of the Directive, which concerns the fight against serious crime. This point was struck down by the EU Court of Justice, explains Jon Karlung.

The formal action of reporting Sweden to the EU Commission comes after a long row of measures that threaten citizens’ privacy, security and liberty on the Internet. In 2008 the current government let FRA (Sweden’s NSA) tap into all internet traffic going in and out of Sweden. Recently the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) has requested “voluntary” participation of network operators in a program, granting direct access to their equipment. Bahnhof has steadfastly refused any such intrusion and instead published recordings of officials making these demands.

– We at 5th of July Foundation wish to empower the public, so today we launch a free chat service, a jabber server which supports easy OTR encryption, one of the few ways of communicating securely that Edward Snowden recommends. We are happy to be able to use Bahnhof’s network for this, https://5july.org/jabber/

About:
https://5july.org/about-us/

Bahnhof was founded in 1994 and is Sweden’s oldest and one of the largest independent national Internet providers. Bahnhof hosted WikiLeaks. https://bahnhof.net

Yesterday, our resident blogger HAX demanded Sanctuary for Snowden! He also noted that Aftenposten, Norway’s leading newspaper, in a powerful editorial urged the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award Edward Snowden the Peace Prize this year. They published their editorial in English.

To be chosen, Snowden must first be nominated. Well, we made sure he is!

The Board of 5th of July Foundation considered Edward Snowden to be an outstanding choice for Nobel’s Peace Prize. Of course the foundation does not have the right to nominate candidates. But one of our board members have. Love Ekenberg is Professor and Head of the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences within the Faculty of Social Sciences at Stockholm University and belongs to one of the eligible categories.

Professor Ekenberg wrote a Nomination Letter that the 5th of July Foundation do fully support. Stockholm University published the letter in Swedish. Below you find it in English.

In fact, at least eight nominations have been made public and there are potentially many more. Ekenberg submitted the nomination on January 28, 2014, thus well within the deadline. Stockholm University announced it on February 5. Our blogger HAX was even himself involved in another nomination – as the assistant to Member of European Parliament Christian Engström, one of five signatories of a nomination letter from the Pirate Party.

The nomination letter from Professor Love Ekenberg in English for the first time:

I hereby nominate Edward Joseph Snowden to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2014

A foundation for freedom of opinion and democracy is that people privately and without reprisals from exsisting powers can communicate with each other, exchange ideas, experiences and opinions. Rights to confidential communications are therefore classified as basic human rights and are enshrined in constitutions, laws and international declarations.

Edward Snowden’s leaking of documents has shown that general surveillance by e.g. NSA stretches further than few could imagine. Snowden has stated that “…they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them. “

We should remind ourselves of a citation normally attributed to Cardinal Richelieu, the champion of the Absolute Monarchy in 17th century France: “Qu’on me donne six lignes de la main du plus honnête homme, j’y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre” (“Show me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will find enough therein to hang him”).

The documents have shown that unfettered intelligence organizations from various nations do exchange information in a way that risks making every citizen a target. Edward Snowden: “I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.”

It was hardly such cooperation between state powers that Alfred Nobel referred to when he wished to award the Peace Prize to those who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” Snowden’s disclosures now provide all of us with an opportunity to build such fraternity – citizen to citizen of different nationalities.

Fully aware that he would be a hunted man for the rest of his life did Edward Snowden leave a highly paid position and an excellent career, a house in Hawaii, a girlfriend, and family, in order to do what he considered right and that now benefits us all. He has shown extraordinary personal courage.

The Nobel Committee can make a major contribution by rewarding Snowden with the Nobel Peace Prize. It may give others the courage to come forward and become whistle blowers when they see abuse of power that is unknown to the public and that undermines the democratic foundations and human rights.

 “Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten — and they’re talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance state.” (Edward Joseph Snowden)

Love Ekenberg, Professor and Head of Department of Computer and System Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University