Watching the watchers

On Monday, the British Business Minister, Judith Wilcox, told Parliament that the British government is considering banning the sale of mobile phone surveillance software to Iran and Syria.

"We take any reports of exports being misused overseas very seriously, and the extent to which export controls should apply to surveillance equipment is something the government is considering actively, particularly in relation to Syria and Iran," she said before the House of Lords. "Surveillance technology at the moment is not controlled under our current export licensing system, as it has legitimate applications."

Syria has been repeatedly rebuked by the international community in recent months for its violent reaction to its domestic political uprising. On Sunday, the Arab League voted to place Syria under economic sanctions from the 19-member bloc.

"The Government's policy is to actively discourage all trade with lran," Wilcox added in written remarks. "We can only prevent trade in those cases where the law allows us to do so. The Government will consider carefully the case for new legislation in this area."

A British company, Creativity Software, has admitted that it does sell location-based services technology to MTN Irancell in Iran, but suggested that these were limited to "zone billing" and "friend finder" applications. In a November 10 statement on its website, the company emphatically writes: "Creativity Software has not supplied technology to any other entity in Iran."

Previously, Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint Finnish-German venture, came under fire during the aftermath of the controversial June 2009 Iranian presidential election. Critics said its hardware had been used to monitor and surveil Iranians. The company maintains that what it sold to Iran was legal and that a "lawful intercept" capability is common in such packages.

Italian monitoring firm denies relationship with Syrian intelligence

The British Business Minister's remarks come on the same day that an Italian company, Area SpA, announced that it would stop operating in Syria.

European telecom surveillance and monitoring companies have encountered criticism in recent weeks, particularly after a Bloomberg News investigative series revealed that the Italian system would have given Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime the power to intercept, scan and catalog nearly all electronic communications within Syria.

On Monday, Area's attorney Fabio Ambrosetti was quoted by Bloomberg and the Italian newspaper La Repubblica as saying that the company was pulling out of the 13 million euro ($17.3 million) deal.

"The project, suspended for three months, given the lack of improvement in the conditions of the country, will not be completed," Ambrosetti said.

In an Italian-language letter to the editor of La Repubblica published on November 11, Ambrosetti added that the system "has never been operational and in no way could have contributed to any kind of enforcement action," noting that Area has "never had any relationship with the intelligence agencies and military authorities of [Syria]."

"The company opposes any form of repression and disapproves of any use of technology in open violation of human rights," he added.

Renewed calls for pan-EU action

Many European politicians, who have been watching how technology has been used to clamp down on dissents in countries with repressive regimes, have applauded the move by Area and the British Business Minister.

"We need a public debate all over Europe and in the USA about the issue that certain companies support countries like Syria or Iran to control the Internet and cutback freedom of expression," wrote Malte Spitz, a Green Party member of the German parliament, in an e-mail sent to Deutsche Welle.

He said that at a recent party congress, the Green Party in Germany approved a new policy paper, which included many Internet-related topics, including increased examination of the export of surveillance technology.

Earlier this year, Spitz received and revealed highly-detailed geographic information about himself that had been legally tracked by his mobile phone provider, Deutsche Telekom, which had acted under a required European Union directive. That directive was later overturned by German courts, but remains in effect in many EU member states.

"We need a clear ban on exports of certain types of technologies, strict controls and also transparency in the whole sector," Spitz added. "These companies, and also countries who allow such exports, have to understand that they also take responsibility for the measures taken by such countries."

Other politicians agreed, including Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament. In an e-mail sent to Deutsche Welle she called this a "good start."

"However, there is a need for EU-wide rules, so that a level playing field remains," she added.

"For the EU's common foreign and defence policy to be credible, it needs to have up to date regulation of the export of digital weapons. I hope the European Commission and the High Representative for the EU's External Actions will be inspired by the developments in Italy and the UK, and will finally take EU-wide action, which I have called for repeatedly."

Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Saroja Coelho