Big Brother Is Hanging Around
May 27, 2013
It is easier now for governments to download pieces of spyware and monitor unsuspecting citizens. Take note of Quartz’s article, “36 Governments (Including Canada) Are Now Using Sophisticated Software To Spy On Their Citizens” about how the Canadian research center Citizen Lab discovered that thirty six countries have bought intrusive IT technology from Gamma International.
Gamma International sells its products exclusively to governments. Most governments say they use the software to track down dissidents, suspicious activity, and to monitor organized crime groups. Gamma probably states that it does not want its products to be used for negative purposes, but:
“The product may also have been used in the past by repressive nations hoping to monitor dissidents. In his new book, Eric Schmidt mentions ‘a raid on the Egyptian state security building after the country’s 2011 revolution [which] produced explosive copies of contracts with private outlets, including an obscure British firm that sold online spyware to the Mubarak regime.’ Gamma denied that it had supplied the regime with its program, which its agents were hawking for a piddling $560,000.”
Gamma is not the company to cash in on this market and it will not be the last. In relation to search, it makes you wonder if governments consider this a viable search system to find information? We wonder what search engine they use.
Whitney Grace, May 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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