In the past year, international scrutiny of companies in the Information
and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has increased in part
because of revelations that several companies had provided surveillance
technology to governments which undermined the rights of privacy and
freedom of expression. While some companies actively marketed such
technologies, others have struggled with the dilemma of supplying
technology, which can have ‘dual-‘ and ‘multiple-use’...
The right of freedom of expression is not absolute, and governments have
an obligation to protect people, for example from terrorism acts, for
which courts recognize the state’s right to impose lawful intercepts.
Some companies in the ICT sector are required to maintain close relationships with governments and law enforcement agencies to provide the means for ‘lawful interception’ of communications in order to fight certain crimes. But some companies sell and market surveillance technology which may violate international human rights standards, such as mass intercept technology and ‘password sniffing’ software. These tools enable states to persecute human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists, and other vulnerable groups, violating privacy and casting a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression.
As the means to communicate digitally increase, a growing number of technology products originally intended to improve services and maintain the flow of data can also be used to scan private communications ( and the means to enable lawful interception can be misused by states intent on controlling and suppressing their citizens.
This year, the European Parliament states that it has to “stop the export of dual-use items and technologies that are used as tools of repression through (mass) censorship, (mass) surveillance, tracing and tracking of human rights defenders, journalists, activists and dissidents.”
In order to avoid being accused of being complicit in the potential human rights violations that dual-use technology facilitates, companies in the ICT sector will want to be even more proactive in 2013 and beyond to prevent and mitigate such risks.
Some companies in the ICT sector are required to maintain close relationships with governments and law enforcement agencies to provide the means for ‘lawful interception’ of communications in order to fight certain crimes. But some companies sell and market surveillance technology which may violate international human rights standards, such as mass intercept technology and ‘password sniffing’ software. These tools enable states to persecute human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists, and other vulnerable groups, violating privacy and casting a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression.
As the means to communicate digitally increase, a growing number of technology products originally intended to improve services and maintain the flow of data can also be used to scan private communications ( and the means to enable lawful interception can be misused by states intent on controlling and suppressing their citizens.
This year, the European Parliament states that it has to “stop the export of dual-use items and technologies that are used as tools of repression through (mass) censorship, (mass) surveillance, tracing and tracking of human rights defenders, journalists, activists and dissidents.”
In order to avoid being accused of being complicit in the potential human rights violations that dual-use technology facilitates, companies in the ICT sector will want to be even more proactive in 2013 and beyond to prevent and mitigate such risks.
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