[governance] New Report: Current Export Controls for Surveillance Tools are Outdated and Ineffective

Mon Mar 24 20:33:16 EDT 2014

Hi Carolina (copies to multiple lists taken out)

This was an interesting post, but to me a surprising one given its source. >From what I understand (from Wikipedia)

The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is the technology program of the New America Foundation. OTI formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open-source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks.

This paper (I hope!) has nothing to do with open architectures and open-source innovation. Both would be severely compromised by any sort of political or moral judgements on the use of any sort of software as advanced in this paper.

Leaving aside the vexed moral question of sales of surveillance software and any limitations on such sales, I wonder if there is any link here to open source and open architecture considerations? I am just wondering why such a paper emanates from such an organisation.

Ian Peter

PS Australia perhaps should be added to the list of countries who should be forbidden use of surveillance software after using it to advance commercial offshore oil deals with the poor neighbouring country of East Timor (not to mention using it to tap the phone of the wife of the President of Indonesia). But then, I guess we had better leave privacy out of any considerations on limitations of software sales here...

From: Carolina Rossini 
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 2:25 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org ; irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org ; mailto:bestbits at lists.bestbits.net ; discuss at 1net.org ; ibdi_lista at yahoogrupos.com.br 
Cc: Tim Maurer 
Subject: [governance] New Report: Current Export Controls for Surveillance Tools are Outdated and Ineffective

sorry for cross-posting, but this might be of the interest of folks in these lists 

For Immediate Release
Monday, March 24, 2014

PRESS RELEASE
New Report: Current Export Controls for Surveillance Tools are Outdated and Ineffective
WASHINGTON, DC — Authoritarian governments have abused surveillance technologies for political control, the suppression of the media and civil society, and other violations of fundamental human rights.  Today, New America’s Open Technology Institute – in collaboration with Privacy International in the United Kingdom, and Digitale Gesellschaft in Germany – released a new report that examines export controls as a policy solution to this problem.

Government regulation on the export of surveillance technology could help prevent such technology from being acquired by end users with dubious human rights records. The report provides an in-depth policy and technological analysis of export control regimes in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and finds that existing export control regulations have become out-dated and have not kept up with new technology.

"It is clear that export controls need to be updated. The new controls on surveillance technology agreed on among 41 states through the Wassenaar Arrangement in December are an opportunity to do that,” said Tim Maurer, Research Fellow with New America's Open Technology Institute. “The U.S. government has a unique chance when it implements the changes to set a positive example for other countries."

Several governments have made efforts to impose export controls on surveillance technologies, but a coordinated multilateral approach will be necessary for export controls to be effective. That is why this report was developed as a joint project among three organizations in three different countries with a significant share of this market. “This report highlights not only existing efforts to ensure this thriving industry is made accountable, but also offers a blueprint forward,” said Edin Omanovic, Research Officer at Privacy International and co-author of the report.

The report is available online and was written by Tim Maurer, Edin Omanovic, and Ben Wagner. The authors are available for interviews and background briefings.

To read the full report, Uncontrolled Global Surveillance: Updating Export Controls to the Digital Age, please click here.

Expert Contact
Tim Maurer
Research Fellow, Open Technology Institute, New America
(202) 596-3612
mailto:laitinen at newamerica.net

Media Contact
Jenny Mallamo
Media Relations Associate, New America
(202) 596-3368
mailto:vanderlinde at newamerica.net
###

About New America
New America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. To learn more, please visit us online at www.newamerica.org or follow us on Twitter @NewAmerica.

About the Open Technology Institute
The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is a global pioneer in developing innovative communications technologies and policies to enable communities to fully participate in the global economy, and freely shape their democracies. To learn more, please visit us online at http://oti.newamerica.org and on Twitter @OTI.

-- 

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