Mozilla fellow Esra'a Al Shafei watches the watchers

""You cannot resist what you do not know, and the more you know, the better you can protect yourself and resist against the normalization of mass surveillance today," she told The Register. To this end, the Mozilla fellow founded Surveillance Watch last year. It's an interactive map that documents the growing number of surveillance software providers, which regions use the various products, and the investors funding them. Since its launch, the project has grown from mapping connections between 220 spyware and surveillance entities to 695 today."

"These include the very well known spy tech like NSO Group's Pegasus and Cytrox's Predator, both famously used to monitor politicians, journalists and activists in the US, UK, and around the world. They also include companies with US and UK government contracts, like Palantir, which recently inked a $10 billion deal with the US Army and pledged a £1.5 billion ($2 billion) investment in the UK after winning a new Ministry of Defense contract."

"Then there's Paragon, an Israeli company with a $2 million Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract for its Graphite spyware, which lets law enforcement hack smartphones to access content from encrypted messaging apps once the device is compromised. Even LexisNexis made the list. "People think of LexisNexis and academia," Al Shafei said. "They don't immediately draw the connection to their product called Accurint, which collects data from both public and non-public sources and offers them for sale, primarily to government agencies and law enforcement.""

Esra'a Al Shafei discovered FinFisher spyware on her device more than a decade ago and now monitors firms that produce and sell surveillance tools. She launched Surveillance Watch, an interactive map documenting surveillance software providers, regional use, and investors, which expanded from 220 to 695 mapped entities. The map lists commercial spyware like NSO Group's Pegasus and Cytrox's Predator, companies with major government contracts such as Palantir, and vendors supplying law enforcement tools like Paragon's Graphite. The project highlights how data brokers such as Accurint compile and sell both public and non-public information to authorities.

Read at Theregister