Nokia Siemens in Iran: Shame or all’s fair game for telcos? was my exactly one year ago on the sale of equipment to Iran by Nokia that enables the clampdown on, inter alia, the freedom of expression. At the time, Ben Roome, a spokesperson for Nokia Siemens who also commented on my blog, was on the defensive and made no reference to the provisioning of surveillance technologies to surveillance agencies in Iran.
But as reported in the media recently,
After MEPs critical – Nokia admits Iran “error”
Barry French of phone company Nokia Siemens explained that they had provided Iran with lawful interception capability in mobile networks, but admitted the company committed an error providing active surveillance technology for monitoring centres.
The company had faced criticism in a European Parliament resolution over this and the way it had been used by Tehran to intercept mobile telephone calls.
In 2009 Nokia halted all work connected to monitoring centres and started reviewing policies. “We have a responsibility to help ensure that the communications technologies we provide are used to support, and not infringe, human rights” he told the hearing.
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