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During the court hearings, two activists offered evidence: Dr Ala'a Shehabi from anti-surveillance group Bahrain Watch and Tadesse Kersmo, an Ethiopian political refugee living in the UK. They both claimed to have been targeted by FinFisher tools, which they believed were placed on their personal computers by governments to surreptitiously track them and their contacts. I caught up with both Shehabi and Kersmo to hear about their experiences.Shehabi, a Bahraini/British national whose father founded the Bahrain Freedom Movement, does not know for sure she was targeted by the Bahrain government, but suspects the administration was responsible. Prior to the attempts to infect her computer, she was arrested along with the British Channel 4 news team during the pro-democracy protests that surrounded the Bahrain Grand Prix in April 2012.We won! High Court slams HMRC for unlawful concealing of information surrounding export of spyware FinFisher: https://t.co/JSuiXOv02D
— PrivacyInternational (@privacyint) May 12, 2014
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Tadesse Kersmo. Image: Privacy International
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“Without regulation these private companies are going to be spying on not just activists, it could be anyone—politicians, journalists, lawyers—in a similar way to governments are spying on everyone as per the NSA revelations.”Both Shehabi and Kersmo are, at least, thankful for the High Court’s decision this week. “I think this has put the pressure on the government to really take the issue of surveillance by force much more seriously, that these things are traceable and that the big companies that are manufacturing them are able to operate and export to repressive regimes knowingly … This is an important first step in challenging that,” Shehabi added.Kersmo and Privacy International have taken their fight to other authorities. Earlier this year, the alleged offence was reported to the UK’s National Cyber Crime Unit, a group within the National Crime Agency. The case has been passed on to an investigating officer.“If the FinFisher product is sold to repressive regimes, Gamma is providing them with the ideal tool to commit the offences of unlawful interception of communications. Gamma is aware of the fact that the relevant government will commit such an offence, and that by selling FinFisher it provides crucial assistance in carrying out this offence,” the complaint read.Despite his ire at Ethiopia, Kersmo, like Privacy International, is concerned about the potentially illegal compromise of a PC on UK soil. According to him, “One of the major victims in this espionage is the UK … its sovereignty has been infringed.”"If the FinFisher product is sold to repressive regimes, Gamma is providing them with the ideal tool to commit the offences of unlawful interception of communications."