This is but one example of the problematic sale and use of European surveillance tools around the world. The market for European surveillance technology exports is a large one, but also one about which we know very little. With the exception of a few states, information regarding exports, or export licenses — the basic information about who is selling what to whom — is generally shrouded in secrecy.

What we do know comes from sources such as investigations by journalists. One such investigation found that over the last three years, EU states approved 317 export licenses for digital surveillance technology, with many of these exports ending up in countries with poor human rights records, including the United Arab Emirates — they denied only 14 licences.

An Al Jazeera report on illegal sales of surveillance technology

Other information has come from data breaches when European companies have been attacked and had their internal communications dumped online. This is what happened to the Italian company Hacking Team in July 2015. Though the company had long denied it (and maintain they acted legally), the leaked documents appear to show that Hacking Team had indeed been selling to numerous governments with poor human rights records, including Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Ethiopia and others.

Phineas Fisher (left) has claimed responsibility for the hacks of both Hacking Team and Gamma International (Youtube: https://youtu.be/BpyCl1Qm6Xs)

Another European manufacturer of surveillance software — the German-British Gamma International— suffered the same fate in 2014, allegedly at the hands of the same hacker. Those leaked documents appear to have revealed numerous problematic sales to repressive governments, and undermined the company’s claims that they were not involved in the targeting of dissidents in Bahrain with their software.