

When you share images and videos on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, you grant them a licence to use your posts any way they see fit for free. And there’s money to be madeĬorporate mass surveillance is conducted directly by corporations on their consumers.

The financial data of Booz Allen Hamilton (the private security firm that employed Snowden) show its profits increased from US$25 million in 2010 to US$219 million in 2013. In the US, the NSA has outsourced surveillance tasks to thousands of companies that make money by constantly monitoring citizens. Many digital corporations assist government surveillance.

Since US whistleblower Edward Snowden began releasing National Security Agency (NSA) documents in June 2013, revelations about government mass surveillance have caused outrage in Western democracies. Mass digital surveillance has become the rule beyond authoritarian states. Trovicor, a German firm, has sold hacking technology to a dozen Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Bahrain, where activists were tortured while being shown transcripts of their text messages and phone calls.Ĭisco Systems is facing litigation in California and Maryland for allegedly selling surveillance equipment to the Chinese government, which has used it to perpetrate human rights abuses.Įdward Snowden’s revelations about government spying on citizens caused outrage around the world. California’s Blue Coat Systems’ monitoring devices have been found in Syria, Iran and Sudan. Narus, a Boeing subsidiary, was revealed to have sold sophisticated surveillance equipment to Egypt. There is ample evidence that technology produced by American, Canadian and European companies is being used by authoritarian governments to facilitate human rights abuses. They can use voice recognition to scan mobile networks, listen in on our calls, read our text messages and emails and even change their contents en route.Īll this information is filtered and organised on such a massive scale that it can be used to spy on every person in an entire country. Governments can track our every movement using drones and GPS.
Maxim indonesia december 2015 software#
These range from software that filters and blocks online content to tools that help governments spy on their citizens. The array of mass surveillance tools enhanced by digital technologies is incredibly broad.
