EU companies keep exporting surveillance tech to authoritarian governments – report

The current laws don’t do enough to stop European companies from exporting surveillance technology to governments elsewhere that have a track record of human rights violations.

In 2021, the EU adopted the landmark Dual-Use Regulation, which prohibits the export, technical assistance, or transfer of dual-use technologies that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, including cybersurveillance technology.

The regulation is aimed, in part, to prevent exports to countries where governments are likely to use these technologies to violate international humanitarian or human rights law.

A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international nongovernmental organization, investigates how the regulation works in practice.

The report states that the EU currently is doing “too little” to prevent sales and transfers from its member states to governments with a track record of using such surveillance technologies for crackdowns on dissent and other serious rights violations.

In addition, the export and application of these technologies have been used to compromise the ability of human rights defenders and journalists to work freely and safely, and to protect their sources.

European technology sold to autocrats

The report suggests that one or more companies in Bulgaria exported intrusion software, telecommunications interception systems, or both, to Azerbaijan in 2022.

Azerbaijan, a small Caucasian country, has a long and well-documented history of carrying out surveillance, leading to violations of the right to privacy and other rights. Journalists, activists, and human rights defenders are especially targeted.

According to HRW, the Bulgarian company’s Circles products, sold globally, allow the tracking of mobile phone users and the interception of their communications. In some cases, the technology helps infect their mobile phones with spyware.

“It appears as if EU countries and EU-based surveillance companies are putting profits above people despite adopting one of the most progressive regulations to curtail the sale of this harmful technology.

Zach Campbell

Circles is affiliated with NSO Group, the Israeli firm that developed and sells Pegasus spyware, which came under intense scrutiny for being used to spy on high-profile politicians and heads of state, activists, and journalists, among others.

Another notable example, according to the HRW report, is a Polish company or companies that sold and exported telecommunications interception systems to Rwanda in 2023.

As the Rwandan government has a track record of digital surveillance of dissidents and journalists, the export of surveillance technology raises the risk of it being used to violate rights.

​Member states are “solely responsible” for exports

The European Commission told HRW that member states are “solely responsible for licensing decisions on dual-use exports.”

The Commission said that the decision to collect data in a way that obfuscates what technology was sent stemmed from a concern “that only a limited number of companies were active in exporting such items at the time of the adoption of the Recommendation, thus potentially violating commercial confidentiality or revealing their identity.”

“It appears as if EU countries and EU-based surveillance companies are putting profits above people despite adopting one of the most progressive regulations to curtail the sale of this harmful technology,” Zach Campbell, senior surveillance researcher at HRW, said in a press release.

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