Yesterday the Swiss votedtaxes voted by a 66,5% majority to give the government more powers to spy on their daily lives.
Last year, the country's parliament passed a law allowing its secret service, the FIS, to have more powers to spy emails, phones, or even use hidden cameras and microphones.
Αυτές οι τεχνολογίες και οι διαδικασίες διερεύνησης και παρακολούθησης είναι μια κοινή πρακτική σε άλλες countries, but had been outlawed by the strict Swiss government.
The law, which the government argued was necessary after the devastating attacks in Paris by ISIS, was challenged by groups protectionof privacy and Swiss left-wing political parties, which delayed its implementation and forced the government to hold a referendum held this Sunday.
So the Swiss population, trying to protect itself against rising threats from terrorist groups, has voted to sacrifice private life for security reasons.
Switzerland, next to Germany and the Scandinavian countries, has some of the toughest privacy laws in Europe. To such an extent that it took years for Google to get permission to map the country through the Street View service.
The FIS secret service, dealing with internal and external cyber-espionage while gaining the extra powers, will need special permission from the court, the defense ministry, and the cabinet to begin every internal surveillance operation, according to with SwissInfo.
