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Content type: News & Analysis
8th April 2016
Hacking Team, an Italian surveillance company selling intrusive spyware to government authorities around the world, has had its global export license revoked by the Italian export authorities, according to a report in Il Fatto Quotidiano.
The move comes after intensive media scrutiny spurred by the hack of their internal systems last summer and revelations that they had sold surveillance technology to some of the world’s most authoritarian states.
One of the countries to which Hacking Team…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th March 2016
Following the launch of our report "The President’s Men?" shedding light on the existence of the Technical Research Department, a secret unit within the Egyptian intelligence infrastructure we publish here an open letter we have sent to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi demanding that he responds to the extremely worrying situation we describe in the report.
Your Excellency President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi,
On Wednesday 24th February we released a new investigation about the Technical Research…
Content type: Press release
23rd February 2016
Privacy International today publishes a new investigation, based on exclusive documents, exposing the sale of European surveillance technologies to a secret unit of Egypt's intelligence infrastructure.
The Technical Research Department (TRD) is an independent unit within the General Intelligence Service (GIS), accountable only to the President. According to sources, the TRD has the biggest budget for surveillance technologies of any Egyptian government body. Such large public expenditure…
Content type: News & Analysis
14th November 2014
In Egypt, the internet, social media and online engagement have provided a critical platform in recent years for Egyptians to express their frustration and demand change after years of social, economic and political repression. The use of social media during protests, and the government's recent attempts to crack down on the use of services like Twitter and Facebook, have been widely reported.
So it was with shock and disappointment that Privacy International looked on earlier this month as…
Content type: News & Analysis
11th April 2012
In September last year, David Cameron told the UN general assembly: "As people in north Africa and the Middle East stand up and give voice to their hopes for more open and democratic societies, we have an opportunity – and I would say a responsibility – to help them." The Arab Spring uprisings had provided a chink of light for those living under repressive regimes, and it was now up to western democracies to help them throw open the door to a bright new future.
Yet over the past six months,…