On 1 October 2023, the remaining statutes regarding bulk collection of electronic communication data were enacted into the Intelligence Service Act. Accordingly, the full scope of the bulk collection regime is now effective. The Norwegian bulk collection regime entails service providers to facilitate the transfer of communication data on the request of the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), provided that the data are in transit across the Norwegian border.
The EOS Committee is responsible for overseeing the legality of the activities conducted by the NIS, including the service’s application of the bulk collection regime. Several employees in the secretariat – both lawyers and technologists – work diligently to assist the Committee on this matter.
To achieve an efficient oversight, the Committee apply a risk-based oversight of the bulk collection regime. The purpose of the Committee’s oversight is
* to prevent and uncover any violations of individuals’ rights, and otherwise, whether the activities are kept within the scope of the statutes and other relevant regulations, and
* to prevent undue damage to society’s interests
The Committee will regularly oversee all parts of the process where violations may occur, in particularly:
- The decision by the NIS to intercept data for the purpose of technical analysis to determine whether there are sufficient grounds for requesting an authorisation by the Court to intercept data for intelligence purposes.
- The interception of data to collect for intelligence purposes
- metadata
- data for further technical analyses.
- Searches made in collected metadata.
- The collection of content data.
The Oslo District Court, or the Court of Appeal, must give prior approval to the NIS before action are taken in accordance with 2, 3 and 4 above. The EOS committee then oversees whether the NIS adhere to the relevant statues and the decisions given by the court.
The EOS Committee also oversee the sharing to national and international partners of information which originates from the bulk collection of electronic communication data.
Further reading: The Intelligence Service Act chapters 7 and 8
Definition:
Metadata – Data that describes other data or that contains additional information related to data, for example who is the sender or recipient, the size, position, time or duration of the communication.
This article was published in Norwegian on October 20, 2023, and the English version was published August 30, 2024.