Andre Yoskowitz
22 Jun 2008 17:41
The infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has announced that in response to a new Swedish legislation passed this week, it will be offering encryption services to all of its users.
On Thursday, Sweden passed a new "surveillance law" which allows authorities to monitor all incoming and outgoing transmissions if they feel it is in the best interests on national security. The Pirate Bay had lobbied against the bill, but unfortunately their efforts for futile. In response to the bill however, all Pirate Bay users will be given an encryption option this week.
"Many people have asked me what we’re planning to do," admin Peter Sunde writes "- and the answer is “A lot!”. We’re going to help out in any way we can with fighting the law. This week we’re going to add SSL to The Pirate Bay. We’re also going to help out making a website about easy encryption - both for your hard drives and your net traffic. As some people know, we’re running a system for VPN-tunnels already and we’re going to lower the price for that as well and open it up for international users as well."
The levels of protection offered will most likely vary depending on the end users location with concerned users in Sweden getting the best. Users outside of Sweden should have little reason to worry as the new bill will not impact them but I'm sure many will appreciate the free extra level of security.