Sweden’s new proposed communications monitoring law has caught the attention of privacy pundits’ worldwide, and now they have caught the attention of Google as well. Google usually does not comment publicly on things like this, but Google’s privacy counsel person Peter Fleischer has come out saying Google just cannot do business in Sweden if the legislation passes. Now that is some powerful lobbying.

Search engine giant Google has slammed Sweden’s proposed wiretapping legislation as illiberal and incompatible with Western democracy. Speaking on a visit to Sweden on Tuesday, the company’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, warned that Google would rule out making any major investments in Sweden should the controversial bill become law. Source: The Local

While Google’s lobbying efforts are usually low key, to publicly speak out like this means that Google’s privacy group sees more here than most groups. Which is not all that surprising, what is surprising though is that this is happening in the public realm. Which would tend to indicate that they really felt that this was worth doing, or a last resort kind of process.

While the loss of Google to Sweden may not make much of an impact, usually people will follow Google’s lead on some things, which may damage Sweden’s ability to get IT companies to come and set up offices there. In the mean time, it makes for some great dirt, and the article is fun to read.