The Parliament in Sweden has passed an extensive wiretapping law allowing the government to monitor all telephone and email contact that occurs within the country’s borders without requiring any sort of warrant. The controversial law raised protests from journalists, lawyers and liberal political parties. Sweden insists that the law, which will become active in January, is designed for the sole purpose of protecting national security and reducing the threat of terrorism. This has caused major companies like Google to say that the eavesdropping plan makes Sweden the European country most comparable to the U.S. in its allowance of the government to infringe upon citizen's privacy.