According to the new law on secret data reading, the police may, after court decisions, use security holes in software and networks to place code in suspected computers and phones. The suspicion must apply to crimes that can result in more than two years in prison, but the police do not have to tell them how they go, or report the security holes the technology uses.

Secret procurement

Who is to deliver the technology to Sweden is still unclear. And the police procurement is secretly stamped.

The suppliers are located in a small but expansive industry. Programs and companies such as German-English FinFisher, Swedish MSAB, French Nexa as well as American Palantir and Clearview are used by investigators worldwide against pedophiles as well as terrorists.

But the companies are also found in less flattering contexts. FinFisher's products were found at both Egyptian and Libyan security services and Swedish MSAB, with the world-leading telephone cracking program XRY, sells to totalitarian countries such as Egypt and China.

Has been used against journalists

When it comes to aggressive eavesdropping, Trojans who, without being noticed, can intervene in computers and phones, called network injection, NSO's infamous Pegasus software largely lacks competitors. Their services and infrastructure are, according to SVT, one of the strongest cards in the Swedish procurement of Trojans. The police and Säpo do not want to say anything about who they are negotiating with.

- We never comment on our methods or technology, says Klas Friberg, Director General of the Security Police.

Officially, the NSO Group only delivers to law enforcement agencies and "always works to ensure that its technology saves lives and protects against threats of terrorism, serious crime and epidemics," a spokesman writes. But in Mexico, NSO's software has been used by drug cartels against journalists in several cases.