This report was published at Washingtontimes.com at December 5,2011. And was written by Shaun Waterman. This is a summary and the title is above.
A German company offers surveillance technologies for use against political opponents. In Russia, a company sells equipment to identify a single targeted voice in digital recordings of thousands of phone calls. In China, a company boasts software that can track the security on any hotmail or gmail account.
Secret tech that just a few years ago were exclusive of spy bureau, are now available to the highest bidders from companies in dozen of countries.
The private companies offer tech and services that can eavesdrop on cellphone calls, monitor internet activity, tap into fiber-optic cable. The tech can search, filter and index vast quantity of data obtained through all this surveillance.
"Even if American companies, as they claim, only sell to governments, there is no real regulation of end-users even in the U.S., let alone in China and Russia". Said Christopher Soghoian, an privacy advocate and graduate at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University.
Privacy International, a NGO and the anti-secrecy Wikileaks last week published a database of more than 130 companies worldwide that market surveillance tech. The Privacy International NGO and Wikileaks investigators infiltrated tech conferences and obtained promotional materials based in 25 countries, they included well-established entities in the U.S., Israel, Europe, Brazil, China and Russia.
Chinese telecom giant ZTE, for instance, market surveillance products in addition to its phone networks, Cisco System Inc., big U.S. tech company also sell surveillance equipment and services.
After the Arab spring uprisings, protesters in Egypt, Libya and other countries found evidence that deposed dictator had used surveillance tech to spy activists. Syria is using this tech to intercept even secure communication channels such as Skype.
Campaigners are calling for the law to be tightened. "When it comes to surveillance tech operating within the boundaries of current legislation is insufficient", said Emma Draper from P.I. NGO. "Those are essentially tools of political control to oppressive regimes with impunity can no longer be tolerated", she added.
