Lebanese up in arms over invasion of privacy.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

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Controversy arose at the end of 2012 in Lebanon when it was revealed the country's Internal Security Forces (ISF) demanded the content of all SMS text messages sent between September 13 and November 10 from providers such as Blackberry Messenger and Facebook. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the information requested includes usernames and passwords.

The ISF's requests were submitted to the Ministry of Telecommunications. The minister of telecommunication, Nicolas Sehnaoui, immediately took to Twitter, reportedly to rally his supporters to spread the word and to fight to save individuals' Internet privacy.

ISF justified its request, reported EFF, by saying it would help generate leads in an investigation into a car bombing in Beirut that killed ISF's intelligence chief and another senior official. Rather than request...