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What transparency standards should we demand from States using surveillance technologies?

Document Citado por Related
Vincent
AutorFrancisco Vera
Páginas217-219

Page 217

See note 89

The news that Germany sells surveillance technologies without proper licensing to Argentina, Chile and Mexico, reveals the urgent need for putting pressure on the State to balance the comprehendable need for public safety with respect to the Human Rights of its citizens.

Undoubtedly, the biggest news of 2013 was Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA surveillance of our digital communications. This allowed the public to understand more about the scope and extent of these activities on a global scale, and of the low level protection of our online communications. But these dubious activities of intelligence agencies are not limited to the United States, the case of Latin America also deserves special attention.

A new clue was revealed by a pair of prestigious researchers who analyzed the export regime of surveillance technologies taking place in Germany. Among the most interesting aspects of the article is the fact that the global surveillance technology industry creates between three and ive billion dollars a year, that Germany is also increasing its efforts to regulate the export of these technologies and that among the countries that have acquired them, three of them are in Latin America: Argentina, Chile and Mexico.

In igures reported by Der Spiegel, Germany registered exports of 1,2 million euros in surveillance technology to Argentina, 174,000 euros to Chile, and 1,2 million euros to Mexico. However, as stated in the article, the share of these technologies for monitoring use makes up around 20% of the total.

Nevertheless, Germany is not the sole supplier of these surveillance technologies and the sale of these products is not backed with the appropriate licenses from its government. Hence the fact that, for example, FinFisher, one of the technologies that should be subject to export controls in Germany and England, has been found in countries like Mexico and Panama, as shown in a Citizen Lab investigation.

Unfortunately, although most Latin American countries have democratic governments, they have states with streaks of authoritarianism and weak

Page 218

legal and institutional frameworks regarding Human Rights. This forces defenders and activists who support the right of privacy to place all their attention on these reports about the acquisition of surveillance technology. Why were they purchased ? How are these types of purchases regulated? How do they affect the rights of citizens? Many more similar...

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