Tænk på dette, næste gang du køber en Nokia-telefon eller en Fujitsu Siemens-computer. Begge firmaer tjener med største fornøjelse millioner på at levere overvågningsudstyr til et regime, der bruger det til at sætte folk, der siger deres mening eller organiserer protester, i fængsel:
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is known as a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran’s state-owned telephone company.
A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for “lawful intercept functionality,” a technical term used by the cell-phone industry to refer to law enforcement’s ability to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data on communications networks.
In Iran, a country that frequently jails dissidents and where regime opponents rely heavily on Web-based communication with the outside world, a monitoring center that can archive these intercepts could provide a valuable tool to intensify repression.(…)
Ben Roome, a spokesman for NSN, said, “We provide these systems to be used under the applicable laws in their countries and make sure we are abiding by U.N. and [European Union] export regulations and code of conduct. We provided the monitoring center to Irantelecom. We are not going to comment on the use of it. It is there to record lawful intercepts.”
But William Daly, a former CIA signal-intelligence officer for the agency’s Office of Science and Technology who retired in 2000, said the monitoring center in Iran will be used to “monitor dissidents and those ayatollahs who oppose the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei].” (…)
Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who became a democracy advocate and was arrested in 2003 for his opposition to the Islamic republic, said there were rumors in Iranian opposition circles that the Germans had sold the state powerful new technology that would make their monitoring efforts more effective.
“My first reaction is, ‘Wow! Why do they do this?’ Don’t they know that this will be used against the people of Iran?” said Mr. Sazegara, who now lives in the United States.
“They facilitate a regime which easily violates human rights in Iran and the privacy of the people of Iran. They have facilitated the regime with a high technology that allows them to monitor every student activist, every women’s rights activist, every labor activist and every ordinary person.”
Update, 23/6 kl. 21.30: Politiken har nu også historien (25 timer efter modspil.dk 🙂 )
Link: Fed contractor, cell phone maker sold spy system to Iran
Jeg beundrer din gejst, men er forargelsen ikke lidt naiv denne gang? Hvis ikke Nokia eller Siemens tjente på det, var der da bare nogle andre, som gjorde. Skal man være forarget over, at de måske sælger ydelsen lidt billigere pga. teknologisk insiderviden?
Hvis de nævnte selskaber derimod hævdede, at ingen kunne aflytte og følge med uden deres hjælp, havde jeg delt din forargelse. Nu trækker jeg bare på skuldrene og tænker: “Hva’ pokker, kan man forvente andet?” Ingen elektronisk kommunikation er privat i dag.
“Hvis ikke jeg gør det, så er der bare en anden, der tjener de penge”.
Det argument duer ikke, ikke i alle tilfælde i hvert fald. Og med hensyn til overvågningen, så er store firmaer med økonomiske interesser i at levere infrastrukturen (som Nokia og Siemens) jo også blandt dem, der lobbyer f.eks. i EU for overvågningstiltag i stil med logningsdirektivet og den planlagte britiske realtime-database over al mobil- og internettrafik.
Lidt ligesom når Google hjælper med at censurere deres søgeresultater i Kina, eller når Yahoo! angiver en kinesisk journalist og sender ham ti år i fængsel. Nej, vi er ikke i tvivl om, at de vil stå til tjeneste, den dag de samme tjenester skulle være påkrævet her. På den baggrund synes jeg faktisk ikke, det er i orden, at man giver køb på hvad der nu måtte være af principper og kappes om at sælge diktaturstaterne deres undertrykkelsesmidler.
Tværtimod er der grund til at presse på for at få vedtaget et minimalt sæt af digitale borgerrettigheder (som jeg før har skrevet om), som bl.a. kunne sige, at ingen kan få deres kommunikation aflyttet, medmindre der foreligger en retskendelse og en konkret mistanke -- sådan ligesom vi var vant til, før verden gik af lave med terrorlove og diverse krige og skræmmekampagner.
Mere her:
http://fifi.voima.fi/artikkeli/Nokia-connects-now-in-Iran/2893
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we’re talking about a channel that can be used for a number of things, including silencing dissent. If Nokia Siemens Networks finds out that the buyer is using the system for something else than its original purpose, can you shut down the service?
“We can’t do the international community’s work.”
But you have information about what you sold to Iran and how they may be using it. The international community doesn’t. It’s you who could react.
“The system is under the owner’s control now, we have no access. And we can’t act in the place of the international community.”
What exactly did you sell to Iran?
“We do not release this information about our clients.”
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