“Sometimes they would ask me to get information about specific people … some information used to go directly to the president. You will see all the sites, blogs, social networks related to that user,” he said.Īccording to the BBC, the second man was part of a specialist intelligence unit that worked closely with Ben Ali.
One of the men is quoted telling the BBC that his job was to monitor Tunisia’s internet using an Evident system that had been installed in the basement of one of Ben Ali’s houses. Many opponents were locked up, and tortured, by his regime – one of the Arab world’s most repressive – before he was overthrown in 2011. The BBC reported that it had located two men who were employed to operate the Evident surveillance system in Tunisia during the dictatorship of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. However, the Danish government approved the export, partly because its own intelligence service and foreign affairs advisers had not objected. It was feared that the technology could be used decrypt and read the UK’s own sensitive communications. In 2015, a British official wrote that if the UK had been asked to approve the export of this technology, it would have refused on the grounds that it could damage the security of the UK and its allies. This has worried Whitehall officials, according to the emails recording discussions between Danish and British departments responsible for overseeing exports. The individual said the technology – which has been called Evident – can be used to pinpoint people’s location based on the data emitted by their mobile phones.Īccording to the BBC, the technology is capable of breaking communications that have been encrypted, although no details are specified. You would probably need something to narrow your search down, either by a specific person, a specific email address, specific IP address or specific keywords to search for.” If you wanted to do a whole country, go ahead. The BBC quotes an anonymous individual who it says used to work for the firm, describing the technology: “You would be able to intercept any internet traffic.
The firm, now known as BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, sells a surveillance tool that, according to the BBC, can collect, catalogue and analyse millions of people’s electronic communications. It added that it was committed to “operating ethically and responsibly”.Īccording to a BBC investigation published on Wednesday, the sales of the controversial technology were made through a Danish company that BAE bought in 2011. The manufacturer disputed some of the BBC’s claims without specifying which ones. The documents also reveal official concerns that the export of the technology could backfire and imperil the security of Britain and its allies, the BBC said.īAE said it was unable to comment on specific contracts “due to the strict national security and confidentiality regulations we operate under”.