On Wednesday evening the Swedish parliament voted to approve a bill that will make it possible for local authorities to monitor e-mails, fax messages and telephone calls.

One-hundred forty-three members voted to approve the bill, 138 voted against it, one abstained.

On Wednesday morning a planned vote was postponed and the bill went back to the Committee on Defense to be reworked in order to appease critics within the majority coalition, whose votes where needed to get it approved.

The Committee met during the afternoon, and made some additions to improve protection of personal privacy, including assigning the Swedish Data Inspection Board the task of overseeing the monitoring from a privacy perspective, and permission to bug will now be given by a new court-like committee.

The bill will still allow the FRA (Swedish Defense Radio Establishment), a civilian organization that falls under the Ministry of Defense, to listen in on all wired traffic that crosses Swedish borders, to protect against what has been dubbed "external threats."

The changes may have eased the minds of critical majority members in the parliament, but far from everyone is happy.

During the debate that preceded the vote several members from the parliament minority parties criticized the additions, and how they came about, saying that nothing had really changed from the original proposal, and it was from start to finish all a ruse to win in the court of public opinion.

Others voiced their criticism during Wednesday as well.

"One can add as many layers of weird ombudsmen as one wants. It's the principle of direct cables and perfect copies of everyone's lives in a state run network that's wrong," wrote Swedish Internet activist Oscar Swartz in his blog.

"The basic idea stands, FRA will be able to listen in on people communicating on a massive scale, without suspicions of serious crimes," wrote Pär Ström, privacy ombudsman at the Swedish think tank Den Nya Välfärden, in his blog. "It is as absurd as it used be, and a violation of the U.N.'s declaration of human rights."

Proponents say the bill is necessary to keep up with technical advancements and protect Swedish citizens against terrorism and cybercrimes.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.