Nokia Equipment Used to Monitor Iranians Iran: Latest Victim of World's Surveillance State Nokia Monitoring Centre Used to Silence Iranians

By now, virtually everyone in the world is aware of the situation in Iran. While protests in Iran continue, new details of the technology used to monitor its citizens -- filtering the Internet and mobile phones -- is emerging. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Nokia Siemens Network reportedly told the news network BBC that it sold a product called Monitoring Centre, which is used to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls, to Iran Telecom in the second half of 2008.

Monitoring Centre Blocks or Monitors Communications

Monitoring Centre allows authorities to monitor or block any communications across a network, including instant messages, text messaging, voice calls and web traffic. It can also be used to interrogate data (data-mining) to see the information being passed back and forth.

Nokia claims that their product is only being used in Iran to monitor local telephone calls on fixed and mobile lines. Right after that claim was made, a Nokia spokesman, who described the system as "a standard architecture that the world's governments use for lawful intercept," added that Western governments, including the UK, will not allow you to build networks that don't have that type of functionality. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Monitor Center Marketed to 150 Countries

Monitoring Centre is marketed to 150 countries around the world by Nokia. Surprisingly, Nokia does not supply their system to China or Burma. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Millions of Iranians get their mobile phone services through Nokia. On June 13, data traffic in and out of Iran that is largely controlled by Iran Telecom, came to an almost complete halt.

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