The Surveillance Industry Index: An Introduction

Surveillance companies are developing, marketing, and selling some of the most powerful, invasive, and dangerous technologies in the world, ones that are keeping pace with the capabilities of the National Security Agency and the UK’s GCHQ. What's more, companies are maintaining relationships to the repressive regimes it sells to, constantly upgrading their systems and making customer service representatives available 24/7 for dictators and their cronies to reach out to should anything go awry with their products.

The industry is made up of companies selling products that can allow remote access to an individual’s computer or wiretap undersea cables as they arrive at landing stations, allowing for the mass interception of communications. Other companies sell analysis programs that monitor social networks, mapping out a person's social connections and storing all the communications sent and received on the social network. Some companies’ products have been found in Bahrain, Ethiopia and Libya, amongst other countries, and have been used to target pro-democracy activists, journalists and political opposition. Because of the freedom to exist largely in the shadows, members of the private surveillance industry have gained a sense of impunity. The countries where these companies are based, including the United Kingdom, United States, France and Germany, have absolutely failed to regulate the export of these products. In repressive regimes, these technologies enable spying that stifles dissent, has chilling effects across society, and in many cases allows governments to hunt down those it wishes to silence. Some of the information gained from the surveillance has been used during torturous interrogations of those activists. A frank discussion has to take place about the utility of this technology and the destinations it has been exported to. The only way the discussion can be of any merit is if we have access to as much information about these companies and their products as possible.