One surveillance technology company touts “massive passive monitoring” equipment that can capture up to 1 billion intercepts a day, according to a report in RT.com.
Another sells cameras that can be hidden in soda cans or children’s car seats. A third says it can transform vehicles into surveillance control centers.
Western mass surveillance companies promote their technology as a means to help governments defeat terrorism and crime, the report said. But the products allow governments in Africa and other places to spy on their citizens, says surveillance technology watchdog group Privacy International.
Manufacturers of surveillance technology should be regulated just like arms manufacturers, Privacy International said, according to the RT.com report.
Governments in Africa, Asia and the Middle East – and not just the U.S. – secretly monitor email and phone communications using technology purchased from Germany, France, Israel, the U.K. and U.S., the report said.
Privacy International studied more than 1,000 brochures and seminars used at technology fairs in Dubai, Prague, Brasilia, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and London, the Guardian reported. Researchers posed as potential buyers to gain access to private events.
Based on its findings, the watchdog group released the Surveillance Industry Index, with details from 338 companies, including 77 from the U.K that offer governments around the world 97 different types of technology to choose from.
“There is a culture of impunity permeating across the private surveillance market, given that there are no strict export controls on the sale of this technology, as there are on the sale of conventional weapons,” Matthew Rice, research consultant with Privacy International, told The Guardian.
The market lacks oversight and accountability, Rice said. “This lack of regulation has allowed companies to export surveillance technology to countries that use their newly acquired surveillance capability to spy on human rights activists, journalists and political movements.”
Privacy International hopes its research into firms that sell surveillance equipment to governments around the world will spark a debate on regulating industries that it sees as threatening to privacy everywhere, RT.com reports.