Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, said: "While governments have starved this debate over surveillance by saying nothing and denying everything, some companies have acted more responsibly by bringing data to the table. Vodafone is taking a commendable step by taking this issue on at an international scale. And they are trying to identify the legal basis for governments' claimed powers. What we are now discovering is that the picture is even more bleak than previously thought. Governments around the world are unashamedly abusing privacy by demanding access to communications and data, and alarmingly, sometimes granting themselves direct access to the networks.