Standardized template will help civil society inform regulators about harmful products and practices.
Spyware technologies allow anyone in possession of them, including government officials seeking to target and silence their critics, to covertly and remotely access people’s personal devices, with or without a warrant. Freedom on the Net, Freedom House’s annual report on internet freedom around the world, has found that governments are suspected of having access to sophisticated spyware or data-extraction technologies in at least 49 countries, including Morocco, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Mexico, and Armenia. And at least 19 of the 48 governments Freedom House has identified as perpetrators of transnational repression are users of spyware.
The US government has taken significant action against companies and executives that failed to prevent the misuse of commercial spyware. The Commerce Department has added surveillance technology firms, including the well-known vendor NSO Group, to its Entity List; the State Department has issued visa restrictions for individuals who misused or financially benefited from the misuse of commercial spyware (and their families); and the Treasury Department has imposed financial sanctions on the enablers of the Intellexa spyware consortium. These actions helped combat the proliferation and abuse of surveillance technologies, and they were largely made possible by civil society reporting.
To enhance collaboration on this topic by US government stakeholders and civil society organizations from around the world, Freedom House is pleased to launch a new template for reporting technologies that are used to violate human rights.
This reporting tool, which is available for public use, will facilitate civil society efforts to submit timely information on the malicious use of surveillance technologies to relevant officials at the US Commerce Department, State Department, and Treasury Department, enabling them to pursue accountability measures.
The template lays a foundation for more extensive and effective cooperation between civil society and government, with the potential to expand beyond Washington to additional democratic states, allowing the entire international community to make progress in tackling this threat. But it will have a far greater impact when combined with broader diplomatic efforts to curb the abuse of surveillance technologies.
To complement the launch of the new reporting tool, Freedom House calls on state signatories to the Joint Statement on Efforts to Counter the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware and the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative to follow through on their existing commitments. In addition, the Group of Seven (G7) states should take advantage of their upcoming summit to strengthen accountability measures for spyware and other surveillance technologies that are used for transnational repression, particularly given that Canada, the host country, has identified countering transnational repression as a priority for the gathering. Finally, the governments of the United Kingdom and France should ensure that methods for holding perpetrators to account for the irresponsible use of commercial cyberintrusion capabilities are meaningfully integrated into the Pall Mall Process code of conduct for states.
Democracies are clearly aware of the growing menace to their freedom and security posed by the unchecked proliferation of spyware products, and many civil society activists have been directly affected by the technology’s misuse. Freedom House is committed to facilitating greater coordination among these democratic forces in pursuit of their shared goals, and the new reporting tool represents a useful step in that direction.
Be the first to know what's happening.
