UK Indiscriminately Sells Spy Tech: Report

Dozens of U.K. companies have been exporting powerful telecommunications surveillance technology around the world, including devices used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking movement of mobile phone users, Vice reported on Friday. 

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The exports have been conducting since last year, when the government started granting licenses to sale invasive surveillance equipment manufactured in the U.K. However, the report reveals that equipment has been sold to countries like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. 

These countries have been condemned for human rights abuses by the British government, which has also documented abuses of surveillance technology by those regimes against their civil population.

Data collected was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The most alarming thing about the findings is the selling of IMSI-catchers, a controversial cellular phone surveillance devices whose legal framework for use o is still unclear and untested in the U.K., the report adds. 

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Initially developed for the military and intelligence community, the also known Stingray devices are in the U.K. list of “arms and controlled goods” that can only be exported out of the country with the approval of the government.