FE, Denmark's equivalent to the Swedish FRA, has purposefully collected information about Danish citizens, shows a new secret report that has been handed over to the government, writes DR who has read parts of the document.

The collection is said to have taken place with the help of the American intelligence service NSA, which helped the Danish authorities to develop a completely new surveillance system based on a data center on Amager.

- Previously, you could look a little here and a little there.

With the new system, the gates were opened.

The biggest challenge was to find a way to store all the information that came out, says another anonymous source to DR.

May be illegal

With the collaboration, both Denmark and the USA will have the opportunity to search in large amounts of raw data that affects Danish citizens, something that the Danish media has previously reported on.

It is currently unclear whether this has happened.

According to DR, it is also unclear exactly how extensive FE's data collection has been.

Depending on how the law is to be interpreted, the collection of data may be illegal, as FE's task is to secure Danish interests abroad, and as the authority is only allowed to collect information about Danish citizens who have inadvertently fallen into its hands.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden, with whom DR spoke, is not surprised by the information.

- Intelligence services make gentlemanly agreements that are not legally binding.

The last thing they want is to confirm that these monitoring programs exist, says Edward Snowden to DR.

He continues:

- The agreement is that there will be no intentional collection of American citizens' communications from the Danish side, and that the NSA will not intentionally collect information about Danish citizens.

Tried to filter

According to DR's information, FE will try to develop filters to make citizens' information non-searchable in the data center.

Such methods are very difficult to implement - if not impossible, according to experts with whom DR spoke.

An investigation into the matter has now been launched by Denmark's Minister of Defense Trine Bramsen (S), who has read the report.

The government has chosen not to comment on the information in DR.