14 DAY TRIAL // The issue of people tracking in dictatorial countries has surfaced once again with the latest finding that appoints British company Creativity Software as the one that supplies the Iranian government with the means to locate their citizens.
“Creativity Software can provide an end-to-end or bespoke solution to enable exposure of location information to authorized agencies,” reads the description of one of the products offered by the firm.
According to The Telegraph, one of the critics of the Iranian regime turns out to be highly involved with the organization that funds the software developer, this recent situation putting him in the spotlight.
“The biggest problem is that with this technology they can find exactly where you are. You don’t even have to be on the phone, they can simply track you down just through your mobile phone when it is lying on a coffee table,” said Saeid Pourheydar, an Iranian journalist who was at some point arrested.
Officials in the United Kingdom are now claiming that these actions should be prevented by limiting or banning exports of such solutions to problematic countries.
“It is clear that the use of mobile phones has been crucial in allowing the people of Iran to arrange demonstrations and promote human rights, and the fact that a British company would sell technology that could be used to asphyxiate these demonstrations is unthinkable, especially when we know that many of the dissidents have been tortured and executed,” revealed Lord Alton of Liverpool, a leading member of the British Parliamentary Committee.
Since export controls didn't cover the software developers, it seems as Creativity was acting within the law.
The dictatorial regimes cannot be stopped so easily, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if states limited the resources offered by their manufacturers to countries that use such methods to locate and imprison their citizens.