14 DAY TRIAL // Egyptian Internet users no longer have to wonder whether their conversations are being monitored or not, because they’re now 100 percent sure about it.
See Egypt is the sister company of Blue Coat, a US-based company. Over the summer it won a contract to begin monitoring people’s online communications, Egyptian government officials told BuzzFeed News.
“See Egypt has already worked with the government and has strong ties to the State Security Services. They were a natural choice and the system is already winning praise,” said one official who prefers to remain anonymous.
This isn’t even the first time that the Egyptian government has spied on its citizens. They’ve been doing it for a long time, although they’ve mostly centered their snooping on local networks. This time around, however, they’re implementing the Deep Packet Inspection technology that doesn’t just track users’ Internet activity, but also locates their geographical position and monitors their Internet traffic in detail.
“Our job as a company is to give them the system. I train the government how to run it and we give them the program,” said Ali Miniesy, the CEO of See Egypt.
The company has been contracted by the government to provide them the surveillance system, but also to teach them how to go through the data picked up from email accounts and social media sites.
Miniesy said that the program could be used to penetrate whatever program was needed, including messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Viber or Skype. In short, no online activity is safe from the government’s prying eyes.
The government official that agreed to talk to BuzzFeed said they were looking at virtually any conversation and interaction, searching for any worrying detail. They seem pretty interested in conversations between Islamists or those discussing Islamism and giving special attention to communities they consider to be at risk.
Not only are they using the system for religious extremists, but they’re also going after those who they believe don’t abide by the moral values of Egypt, such as homosexuals or those taking part in “debauchery,” although no clear hints were given about what this means exactly.
Everyone's a target
The LGBT community in the country has already been warned against using apps like Grindr after rumors spread that the government was using the site to arrest gay men.
Officially, the government is denying allegations and says that the people live in a “free era” where everyone can express themselves. On the other hand, however, they’re stating rather clearly what type of communications the government is looking for.
“Blasphemy and skepticism in religions; regional, religious, racial, and class divisions; spreading of rumors and intentional twisting of facts; throwing accusations; libel; sarcasm; using inappropriate words; calling for the departure of societal pillars; encouraging extremism, violence and dissent; inviting demonstrations, sit-ins and illegal strikes; pornography, looseness, and lack of morality; educating methods of making explosives and assault, chaos and riot tactics; calling for normalizing relations with enemies and circumventing the state’s strategy in this regard; fishing for honest mistakes, hunting flesh; taking statements out of context; and spreading hoaxes and claims of miracles,” the Interior Ministry said.
What does this leave? Not much. Advocacy officers from various NGOs are appalled by what’s happening in Egypt because the new software used by the government can be used to target anyone, en mass.
“There is a difference between what you do on social media and what you do in the real world. The concern is that people who are not necessarily our protesting would suddenly be on the radar of the Egyptian authorities because they liked a status on Facebook or retweeted something,” said Eva Blum-Dumontet, from Privacy International.