CENTRUM FÖR RÄTTVISA v. SWEDEN JUDGMENT
its purpose, vetting of staff and their duty of confidentiality and sanctions in
case of mismanagement of data. Also, intelligence must be destroyed
immediately in a number of circumstances, including, inter alia, where it
concerns constitutionally protected media sources or legal professional
privilege in relations between a criminal suspect and his lawyer. Moreover,
if the intercepted communications prove to be entirely domestic, the
intercepted data must also be destroyed.
213. As regards the conditions for communicating the intercepted data to
other parties, the FRA has a regulated obligation to report to the Swedish
authorities concerned but ensures that personal data is only reported if it is
of relevance for the purposes for which foreign intelligence may be
conducted. Compliance with this requirement is monitored by the Foreign
Intelligence Inspectorate.
214. The Government emphasised that despite the provision allowing
the FRA to give direct access to its completed intelligence reports to the
Government Offices, the Armed Forces, the Security Police and three other
bodies, no decisions permitting such access have yet been taken by the
FRA. The Government clarified in addition that, since 1 March 2018, under
section 15 of the FRA Personal Data Protection Act, the Security Police and
the Armed Forces may be granted direct access to data that constitutes the
analysis results in a data compilation for analyses, so as to allow these two
authorities to be able to make strategic assessments of terrorist threats. This
changes nothing with regard to the prohibition to use signals intelligence
within foreign intelligence for the purposes of investigating criminal
offences.
215. Finally, with regard to communication of personal data to other
States and to international organisations, the Government disagreed with the
Chamber which had found shortcomings in the relevant legal regime (see
paragraph 150 of the Chamber judgment). They submitted, inter alia, that
the FRA must report to the Ministry of Defence before it establishes and
maintains cooperation with other states and international organisations and
inform the ministry about important issues that occur in the process of such
cooperation. Furthermore, the FRA must inform the Swedish Foreign
Intelligence Inspectorate of the principles that apply to its relevant
cooperation and provide details of the countries and organisations with
which such cooperation takes place. When cooperation is established, the
FRA must inform the Inspectorate of the scope of the cooperation and,
where deemed warranted, of the results, experience and continued direction
of the cooperation.
216. The Government also pointed to the fact that in international
cooperation data is exclusively communicated to parties that are themselves
engaged in foreign intelligence, which meant that it is in the recipient’s
interest to protect the data received. The trust between the parties is based
on a mutual interest in maintaining the security of the data. Also, the FRA’s
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