MassPrivateI Privacy International has released a collection of 1,203 documents on the private surveillance sector, detailing mass surveillance technologies capable of covertly collecting millions of emails, text messages, and phone calls on citizens around the world. The documents mention two companies known for selling Internet monitoring technology and unpublished software vulnerabilities to the U.S. National Security Agency.
“These technologies enable the violation of human rights, particularly the right to privacy and freedom of expression”, adding that now is the “time to shine a light on this issue to bring it to public attention and have it discussed in a public space” Privacy International said.
The collection, called the Surveillance Industry Index, shows that companies from the UK, Israel, Germany, France and the US are offering products which, among other things, allow for remote access to an individual’s computer, monitoring of social media networks, voice analysis on samples taken from phone calls and mass interception of Internet communications.
“The Index exists as a public resource to allow people to read and understand for themselves the kind of equipment that states are buying, and could be targeting at them, or others in their name,” says Matthew Rice, a research consultant with Privacy International in London, UK.
Among the hundreds of companies listed in the Surveillance Industry Index is Hacking Team, which sells intrusion technology out of Milan, Italy. The technology, which bypasses encryption and evades detection by antivirus software and firewalls, is able to monitor cell phone conversations, emails, Skype calls, and even spy on a target through his or her webcam and microphone.
According to the company’s website, Hacking Team provides “effective, easy-to-use offensive technology to the worldwide law enforcement and intelligence communities”. Research done by Citizen Lab indicates that the software has been used to compromise a high profile dissident residing in the United Arab Emirates. According to an article published by Slate, the software has also been used to target a journalist citizen group in Morocco.
“You don’t need to be in a specific country to be a victim of surveillance; being connected to the internet is all that is required,” says Rice.
The Surveillance Industry Index is the result of more than four years of research as part of an investigation into the international surveillance trade that focuses on the sale of technologies by Western companies to repressive regimes set on using them as tools of political control. The index incorporates information provided by WikiLeaks and the Omega Research Foundation, and builds upon joint research with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and wiki projects such as Bugged Planet and Telecomix Blue Cabinet. Privacy International says more than 400 new documents are being released with the launch of the Surveillance Industry Index.
https://www.privacyinternational.org/sii/
————–
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/11/revealed-338-surveillance-companies-who.html