SF Bay Area firms' technology used for oppression
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
A number of recent reports indicated that various Bay Area businesses have, knowingly or not, contributed technology that might have been used to suppress protests, monitor journalists, arrest dissidents and stanch the free flow of information, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring.
... -- Blue Coat Systems of Sunnyvale acknowledged that Syria had been using more than a dozen of its devices to censor Web activity, though it denied it sold the technology to the country. It also reportedly provided technology in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the Journal reported, citing interviews with people working at or with local Internet service providers.
... -- McAfee of Santa Clara, recently acquired by Intel Corp., has provided filtering software for Internet service providers in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the Journal reported, citing buyers and a regional reseller.
-- Hewlett-Packard equipment was reportedly installed in computer rooms in Syria as part of a surveillance system used to monitor e-mails and Internet use, Bloomberg reported, citing documents from the deal and a person familiar with the matter. The Italian company running the Syrian project, Area SpA, bought the equipment through resellers in Italy, the news organization said.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/10/BUU01NIMCF.DTL
= new reply since forum marked as read
