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EU Moves To End Surveillance Tech Sales To Repressive Regimes

Posted by samzenpus on from the these-customers-are-never-right dept.

superglaze writes "The European Union is asking companies that sell surveillance and law enforcement tech to repressive regimes to stop doing so. The EU is not taking concrete action yet, but has warned that sanctions may be applicable. All this comes little more than a week after Wikileaks published the Spy Files, a name-and-shame list of the companies offering tools for mass surveillance and interception to despotic regimes, but also to Western governments."

14 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Repressive? by retech · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who exactly defines repressive and from which side is this judgment passed?

    1. Re:Repressive? by jd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I thought that was public knowledge. The world is divided into the righteous and the unrighteous, with the righteous always the ones doing the dividing.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    2. Re:Repressive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whoever has almost as much streetside camera surveilance and warrantless wiretapping as us is repressive.

    3. Re:Repressive? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Repression involves restricting free speech, journalism and internet access. Nice to see our EU politicians taking a moral stand when our own governments won't.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Repressive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    5. Re:Repressive? by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Is it really that hard? If there is a concentration of power with lack of democratic structure and widespread censorship, I think those are pretty good indicators.

      I'm getting a little tired of this schizophrenic attitude of finger pointing at western governments for their foreign policy and dealings. There is always going to be corruption and power abuse and western governments are not exempt from that. But there are far, far worse things going on in most of the rest of the world. If anyone has the moral authority to define what constitutes a repressive regime and gang up on them to limit the harm they can cause their own people, than it is western Europe. We have our share of problems, but we are also the most important stronghold of democracy and civil rights in the world (I consider the U.S. with its two party system and rampant lobbyism more as an oligarchy as a truly functional democracy). We will make mistakes along the way, but if we don't send signals and push back against what we consider to be repressive regimes, nobody else will because nobody else cares. So stop nitpicking at every action that is taken. At least there are some democratically elected institutions thinking about and trying to deal with these issues.

    6. Re:Repressive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But how much restriction of free speech (neo-nazi-talk in Germany), journalism (license requirements in Italy) or internet access (various web site blocks in every country imaginable) is still ok?

  2. What about buying it from oppressive regimes? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You can buy GPS trackers from China.

    Indeed, much of what you buy from China supports slavery.

    Hypocritical move is hypocritical.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Re:Largely symbolic by Hentes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They will certainly be able to get around it, but not helping them is still the right thing to do.

  4. Re:Don't waste such pretty tech. on evil regimes.. by Gordonjcp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't kid yourself. Cities in the US have got just as much CCTV, *and* you've got armed police everywhere too. Not to mention the proliferation of metal detectors in public buildings.

    Scary stuff.

  5. because "good" countries wouldn't misuse this tech by iampiti · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The funny thing is that if they allow selling the tech to countries without "repressive regimes" how can they be sure is not used for evil?
    Or are "good" countries allowed to use surveilance tech for all the purposes they want including spying their own citizens even if its for the "noble" goal of combating intellectual property theft?
    Yes, I am cynical

  6. Re:Don't waste such pretty tech. on evil regimes.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you are recorded doing something criminal in front of a CCTV camera in Britain, you will (maybe, if the police can be bothered to deal with it, or if they don't just give you a warning) be hauled off to a justice system that is the product of a reasonably fair democracy.

    The article talks about surveilance software that identifies disloyalty so that the local goon squad can have their daily list of victims.

    Comparing the two is a huge insult to people who live under genuinely repressive regimes. "Oh so you were tortured for your political views were you? Well we have it almost as bad here! I keep getting this creepy feeling that somebody's watching me! Oh, and we're not free to stab people in public either, because the cameras are watching! It's terrible!"

  7. Re:Largely symbolic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Name them, shame them. Most have something about ethics in their written aims. Let their shareholders and competitors know.

  8. Re:Don't waste such pretty tech. on evil regimes.. by captainpanic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I get so sick of the people who say that "I have nothing to hide, so I don't care about my privacy".
    Time and time again, this crappy argument shows up again in a different form.

    My point was (a sarcastic remark) about the EU's desire to check on its own citizens. I did not condone torture or dictatorships, and I said nothing about any comparison. The fact that there are worse regimes out there than the EU does not mean that we're doing a good job in the EU.