Microsoft Training May Have Helped Tunisian Regime To Spy On Citizens

An anonymous reader writes "A document released in the recent Cablegate leak reveals that Microsoft provided training to the Tunisian Ministries of Justice and the Interior in exchange for exemption from the country's open software policy. These Ministries would soon put the training to use by phishing for the social networking credentials of bloggers, reporters, political activists and protesters. Microsoft's assistance resulted in the sale of 12,000 software licenses to the Tunisian government." The cable itself details the effort Microsoft put into negotiating a deal. Their clear intent was simply expanding into a new market, but the author of the cable was skeptical of the Tunisian government's adherence to its stated goals. Quoting: "In theory, increasing GOT law enforcement capability through IT training is positive, but given heavy-handed GOT interference in the internet, Post questions whether this will expand GOT capacity to monitor its own citizens."

Comments

Wow

[Mensa Babe]

Microsoft was helping to oppress innocent people by a totalitarian regime to get a chance to sabotage the Free Software movement? Wow. Just wow. This is low. Even for Microsoft. Is there anything that the richest man in the world won't do to get even richer? With all of that money he should be dating supermodels in Paris for the rest of his life but no, he prefers to help putting heroic individuals in jail for having guts to say what they think so that he could sell more of his precious licenses! How do such bastards sleep at night is completely beyond me. I won't repeat what I have already said about corporations that help to maintain dictatorships all over the world. I will only add that sabotaging the Free Software movement adds insult to the injury. We should all be outraged and never buy anything from Microsoft ever again. I call for a boycott of Microsoft until they explain themselves and repair the harm.

Re:Wow

[WNight]

this is just a pretty standard trade deal for IT software. Not illegal, probably not even immoral at all.

Almost certainly immoral, possibly illegal.

How standard it is just speaks to the level of corruption and dishonesty in business, not the inherent rightness.

MS was really selling was the licenses (which don't help Tunisia with it's crackdown at all) and what MS got was Tunisia using less pirated software.

Oh gosh, I didn't know they had business goals. Well shucks then, all's fair if you're trying to make a buck.

Oh, and note the part where all this happened before the trouble, and it was a five-year in the making deal.

Oh, note how the cable (circa 2006) questions the goals of the Tunisian government. Even then their dictatorial activities were well known.

Further, Microsoft was negotiating a government-enforced monopoly. You'd have to be stupid to think that would help the people. They're clearly buying favors from the government that go against the good of the people. They're slime even if there isn't a law against it in this case.

The linked source even says that Microsoft agreed to help train handicapped workers to telecommute so they could get employment. MS: being evil by helping all those damned cripples

The linked source even calls the charity "backroom dealing required to finalize a deal" so we can safely assume (based on other Tunisian leaks) that MS simply kicked back much of the government's purchase price to the ruling family. It's part of how dictators drain their economies into their personal accounts.