Surveillance Industry Needs To Be More Transparent, Privacy International Says

Companies from Finland, Israel, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere supported Colombian government agencies in buying surveillance equipment that allowed them to intercept communications, said a Privacy International report Wednesday, following a PI report Monday on the secret surveillance programs in Colombia (see 1508310051). “Peering behind the veil of surveillance in Colombia, a broad international network of companies are (sic) revealed to be behind some of the most significant expansions in surveillance capabilities in the country over the past ten years,” PI Advocacy Officer Matthew Rice said. “The surveillance industry has been found to be wholly complicit in these abuses,” said PI Research Officer Edin Omanovic. “Probing questions need to be asked about this cycle and how it can be placed within a human rights framework that guarantees that in the future it cannot be this easy for an agency to act outside the law.” There's an urgent need for more transparency and safeguards because the rise of the surveillance industry hasn't been met with the required protections, Omanovic said.