4 CENTRUM FÖR RÄTTVISA v. SWEDEN JUDGMENT shall include information about 1) the issuing authority, 2) the part of the Government’s annual tasking directive it concerns, 3) the phenomenon or situation intended to be covered, and 4) the need for intelligence on that phenomenon or situation (section 2a). B. Scope of application of signals intelligence 12. The purposes for which electronic signals may be collected as part of foreign intelligence are specified in the Signals Intelligence Act which provides that signals intelligence may be conducted only to survey 1) external military threats to the country, 2) conditions for Swedish participation in international peacekeeping or humanitarian missions or threats to the safety of Swedish interests in the performance of such operations, 3) strategic circumstances concerning international terrorism or other serious cross-border crimes that may threaten essential national interests, 4) the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, military equipment and other similar specified products, 5) serious external threats to society’s infrastructure, 6) foreign conflicts with consequences for international security, 7) foreign intelligence operations against Swedish interests, and 8) the actions or intentions of a foreign power that are of substantial importance for Swedish foreign, security or defence policy (section 1(2)). 13. These eight purposes are further elaborated upon in the preparatory works to the legislation (prop. 2008/09:201, pp. 108-109): “The purposes for which permits to conduct signals intelligence may be granted are listed in eight points. The first point concerns external military threats to the country. Military threats include not only imminent threats, such as threats of invasion, but also phenomena that may in the long term develop into security threats. Consequently, the wording covers the surveying of military capabilities and capacities in our vicinity. The second point comprises both surveying necessary to provide an adequate basis for a decision whether to participate in international peacekeeping or humanitarian missions and surveying performed during ongoing missions concerning threats to Swedish personnel or other Swedish interests. The third point refers to strategic surveying of international terrorism or other serious cross-border crime, such as drug or human trafficking of such severity that it may threaten significant national interests. The task of signals intelligence in relation to such activities is to survey them from a foreign and security policy perspective; the intelligence needed to combat the criminal activity operatively is primarily the responsibility of the police. The fourth point addresses the need to use signals intelligence to follow, among other things, activities relevant to Sweden’s commitments in regard to nonproliferation and export control, even in cases where the activity does not constitute a crime or contravenes international conventions. The fifth point includes, among other things, serious IT-related threats emanating from abroad. That the threats should be of a serious nature means that they, for