Posted by msmash from the geopolitics-drama dept.
Sandvine, the makers of surveillance-ware that allowed authoritarian countries to censor the internet and spy on their citizens, announced that it is leaving dozens of “non-democratic” countries as part of a major overhaul of the company. From a report: The company, which was founded in Canada, published a statement on Thursday, claiming that it now wants to be “a technology solution leader for democracies.” As part of this new strategy, Sandvine said it has already left 32 countries and is in the process of leaving another 24 countries.
Sandvine did not name the 56 countries, apart from Egypt, where Sandvine promised to leave by the end of March 2025. For the remaining countries — including non-government customers in Egypt — the “end-of-service” date will be the end of 2025. This change in the company’s direction comes after years of investigations by Bloomberg, which reported that Sandvine had sold its internet surveillance products to authoritarian regimes, including Belarus, Egypt, Eritrea, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.
“To IBM, ‘open’ means there is a modicum of interoperability among some of their equipment.” — Harv Masterson
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