UK exported spying technology to autocratic states like Saudi Arabia, UAE
Reaping nearly $100 million in sales over five years, the
British government provided spyware, wiretaps and other telecom interception
tools to 17 countries, many with a track record of targeting dissent and
undemocratic behaviour.
The UK has sold a range of surveillance technologies to 17
governments, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, The Independent reported.
Records show that the British government provided wiretaps,
spyware and other telecommunications interception equipment that can be used to
spy on dissidents.
Over the past five years, UK ministers have signed off on
more than $95 million in sales to countries ranked “not free” by Freedom House,
despite rules against exporting security goods to countries that might use them
for internal repression.
China and Bahrain were among the list of recipients. The UAE
was the largest recipient of licenses, totaling $14.5 million alone since 2015.
The Philippines, under the Rodrigo Duarte government which
has regularly carried out extrajudicial killings, was also sold UK spy gear.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government received a £2 million
shipment of “telecommunications interception equipment” approved last year
despite ongoing pro-democracy protests.
Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry
told The Independent: “The government has a legal and moral duty to ensure
exports from Britain are not used by other countries for the purposes of
internal repression, and that risk should clearly be at the forefront of their
mind when those countries have a track record of harassing political opponents
and undermining democratic freedoms, and when the equipment concerned is ripe
to be abused in that way.”
Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International’s UK programme
director for military, security and police affairs, told The Independent that
the UK government was becoming “notorious” for their “faulty decision-making”
by failing to take the necessary risk assessments before selling arms, spyware
and other goods to foreign countries.
Feeley-Sprague said that “root-and-branch overhaul” of the
UK’s arms and security export system is necessary and that “a far more coherent
and comprehensive system of reporting” needs to be put in place.
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said the sale of
the spying equipment raised “serious questions and concerns” and that the
British government’s actions were “symptomatic of a dangerous and hypocritical
foreign policy that has consistently prioritised arms exports over human
rights.”
Last week it was confirmed that Britain will resume arms
sales to Saudi Arabia, a lucrative market for British arms manufacturers.
As Riyadh drags on its war in Yemen, it's a move that the
charity War Child said was “tantamount to signing the death warrants of
thousands of children in the Middle East.”
Private snooping industry
According to Moody’s, the industry for the so-called “lawful
intercept” technology is said to be worth $12 billion, and a market that is
growing at a 25 percent annual rate.
While companies working in the sector say the technology is
utilised to target criminal activity and terrorism and has resulted in
countless lives saved, human rights campaigners have pointed to how
authoritarian regimes can wield the technology against its own citizens.
UK companies in particular have been active in the sector.
Britain’s long running expertise in signals equipment and
the presence of defence and security giants like BAE Systems – which develops
its own lawful intercept tool, DataBridge – and Cobham gives it an edge in the
market when it comes to vending surveillance technologies.
Presently, the UK issues export licenses for dual use goods
and technology under the Wassenaar Agreement, with rules for mobile phone and
internet tracking technology added to the list in 2012. The government also
promotes exports abroad through the UK Trade and Investment Defence and
Security Organisation.
Since 2008, BAE Systems has spent more than $1 billion on
procuring surveillance and cyber-security businesses. In 2011, BAE acquired
Danish internet and phone monitoring company ETI for £137 million. ETI had
provided the Tunisian government with monitoring technology prior to the 2011
uprising and was the main contractor and systems integrator for a surveillance
project in Saudi Arabia.
The UK government made export licensing data publicly
available from 2015. Records showed that 98 permanent and temporary licenses
were granted in the period 1 January – 31 December 2015 for phone monitoring
technology, including to Bangladesh, Egypt, Israel, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia,
and the UAE.
A license worth over $8 million was issued by the UK
government in July 2015 for internet monitoring technology to the UAE.
There are a number of documented instances of online
surveillance used to track dissidents in the UAE, and how the Emirati
government has purchased spyware and employed foreign hackers in systematic
campaigns to target journalists and activists.
In December, it was reported that the UAE was utilising the
mobile messaging and VOIP application ‘ToTok’ to track its users’
communications and locations. The application was found to be affiliated with
DarkMatter, an Abu Dhabi cyber-intelligence firm.
The $1 billion-valued NSO Group has been at the centre of
controversial surveillance technologies offered by the Israeli firm to the
Saudi and Emirati governments, and its spyware has been implicated in hacks
targeting journalists, dissidents and activists across the world.
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