Showing Revision 7 created 12/11/2020 by Erin Gregory.

1. Title:
   Inside the massive (and unregulated) world of surveillance tech
2. Description:

   What is a weapon in the Information Age? From microscopic "smart dust" tracking devices to DNA-tracing tech and advanced facial recognition software, journalist Sharon Weinberger leads a hair-raising tour through the global, unregulated bazaar of privatized mass surveillance. To rein in this growing, multibillion-dollar marketplace that often caters to customers with nefarious intents, Weinberger believes the first step is for governments to classify surveillance tools as dangerous and powerful weapons.

3. Speaker:
   Sharon Weinberger
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   A few years ago,
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   an American defense consultant I know
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   told me about a trip
   he took to Uzbekistan.
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   His role there was to help sell technology
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   that the Uzbek government could use
   to spy on its own citizens.
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   He eventually shared with me
   the marketing material
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    he'd presented to the Uzbek government.
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    One glossy brochure featured technology
    that could not just intercept phone calls,
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    but identify the caller,
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    regardless of what phone number
    they were using,
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    based on their unique voiceprint,
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    and then identify their exact
    geographic location.
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    This is a guy who had been involved
    with the arms trade for years.

    ¶

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    He wasn't some Hollywood-type gunrunner
    doing backroom deals.
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    He was just a guy that worked
    with legitimate Western companies
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    to help sell their weapons abroad.
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    But he wasn't bothered
    by marketing this sort of technology.
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    For him, it was just the next step
    in the arms trade.
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    And it was even easier than, say,
    selling weapons to Iraq,
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    because it didn't require
    an export license
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    from the US State Department,
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    the way most arms sales would.
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    It turns out that these
    tools of surveillance
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    are almost completely unregulated,
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    because as of today,
    they're not defined as weapons.
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    But they should be, and we need
    to regulate them that way.
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    I'm a journalist
    who has spent the last two decades

    ¶

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    looking at how the military
    and intelligence world
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    spurs the development
    of new science and technology.
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    I've tracked the emergence of new weapons
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    and looked to see what happens
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    when companies start to market
    these weapons abroad.
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    But what is a weapon
    in the information age?
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    We know that armed drones are weapons,
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    missiles and bombs are weapons,
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    but the State Department
    actually classifies
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    broad categories
    of technologies as weapons.
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    So for example, a scientist going abroad
    on an oceanographic research vessel,

    ¶

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    they want to take
    the latest night-vision goggles?
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    That, according to the State Department,
    is potentially a weapon.
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    Why?
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    Well, because though night-vision goggles
    are used today by scientists
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    and hunters around the world,
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    it was a capability
    first developed for the military.
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    And yet, tools of surveillance

    ¶

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    that an authoritarian regime could use
    to spy on its own citizens,
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    on dissidents, on journalists,
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    that, according to the US government
    today, is not a weapon.
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    And yet, these tools of surveillance
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    are part of a growing secretive
    multi-billion-dollar industry.
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    The genesis of this spy bazaar
    goes back some 18 years,

    ¶

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    to a Hilton hotel in northern Virginia,
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    just a few miles away
    from the US Central Intelligence Agency.
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    A few dozen people,
    mostly dark-suited men,
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    gathered there in the spring of 2002
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    for a conference with
    the unassuming name of ISS World.
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    You know, at first glance, this conference
    probably looked like dozens of events
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    that used to take place
    around the Washington, DC area.
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    But this event was unique.
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    ISS stands for Intelligence
    Support Systems,
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    and the people who were there
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    were from companies
    that built technologies to spy
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    on private communications.
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    In other words, these were
    sort of wire-tappers for hire.
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    And the reason they were there
    was that less than a year earlier,

    ¶

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    the 9/11 terrorist attacks
    on New York and Washington
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    had spurred the Congress
    to press through legislation
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    known as the Patriot Act.
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    This gave the government
    broad new authorities
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    to monitor communications.
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    Emails, internet activity, phone calls,
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    even financial transactions.
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    This created an instant demand for data.
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    And in the true American
    entrepreneurial spirit,
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    an industry rose up
    to help collect this data.
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    But back in 2002,

    ¶

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    this was still a pretty modest affair.
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    Only about 10 percent
    of the world's population
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    was even online using the internet.
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    So most of what was being collected
    were simple emails and phone calls
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    over landlines and cell phones.
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    But over the next few years,
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    the way that we communicate
    began to change rapidly.
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    There was the introduction
    of Skype, Facebook
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    and then, crucially, the iPhone,
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    and within a few years,
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    billions of us were walking around
    with little computers in our pockets
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    that do everything
    from monitor our exercise habits
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    to help us find romantic partners.
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    And suddenly, you didn't necessarily need
    the advanced capability
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    of the National Security Agency
    or big telecoms
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    to monitor everyone's communication.
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    In some cases,
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    all you needed was access
    to that device in their pockets.
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    And that gave birth to an entirely
    new type of industry.
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    You know, not many companies
    can build missiles or aircraft,

    ¶

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     but it doesn't take a lot of capital
     to create software
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     that can hack into someone's smartphone.
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     Computer hackers
     have been around for years,
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     but now their skills could be used
     to build technologies
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     that were in high demand
     by law enforcement
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     and intelligence agencies.
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     And soon, dozens
     and even hundreds of companies
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     were getting into this
     wire-tappers' market.
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     And that little conference in Virginia,
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     it grew and soon became known
     as the Wiretappers' Ball.
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     Well, not much was known
     about the Wiretappers' Ball

     ¶

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     in those early years,
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     because the conferences
     were closed to everyone
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     except the companies
     and their government customers.
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     But journalists did begin to see
     and hear reports
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     of companies getting
     into this private spy market.
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     Spooky entrepreneurs
     going around the world,
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     doing deals,
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     often with authoritarian regimes.
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     And it was, from the start,
     a really loosely regulated market.

     ¶

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     Some countries do require permission
     to sell these technologies abroad,
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     but rarely with the type of scrutiny
     that is given to traditional arms.
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     So for example, the Italian-based
     company Hacking Team
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     reportedly sold its technology
     to authoritarian regimes
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     in Egypt and Kazakhstan.
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     The Israeli-based company NSO Group
     has reportedly sold its technology
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     to the regime in Saudi Arabia,
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     which has been accused of harassing,
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     and even, in one case,
     killing one of its political opponents.
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     And we do think of weapons
     as things that kill people.
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     But in the information age,
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     some of the most powerful weapons
     are things that can track and identify us.
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     This is something that the Pentagon
     and CIA have recognized for years,

     ¶

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     and they've tried to build technologies
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     that can track people,
     suspected terrorists, around the globe.
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     The Pentagon has invested
     in something called smart dust,
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     little microsensors
     the size of specs of dust
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     that you could scatter on people
     without them knowing it,
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     and then use it to track their location.
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     The Pentagon, through
     its venture capital firm,
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     has invested in a beauty products company
     once featured in "Oprah Magazine"
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     to build a device that could
     surreptitiously collect DNA
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     just by swiping across the skin.
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     But something remarkable has happened
     over the past decade.

     ¶

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     In many cases, what the private
     marketplace has been able to do
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     has far outstripped what the Pentagon
     or CIA even thought was possible.
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     Back in 2008,
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     the Pentagon had a secretive database
     of DNA from terrorists.
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     It had about 80,000 samples.
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     Well, the private company AncestryDNA
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     today has samples
     from over 15 million people.
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     23andMe, the second-largest
     genealogical database,
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     has samples from over 10 million people.
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     So now, maybe you don't need
     these James Bond-worthy techniques
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     of collecting DNA
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     if we're willingly handing it over
     to private companies
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     and even paying for the honor of doing it.
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     Well, what could you do
     with a sample of someone's DNA?

     ¶

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     In the United States and China,
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     researchers are working
     on using DNA samples
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     to build images of people's faces.
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     So if you pair DNA
     with facial recognition technology,
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     you have the basis of a really
     powerful surveillance system
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     that could be used to track individuals
     or entire ethnic groups.
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     And if you think that sounds
     a little bit paranoid,
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     keep in mind that the Pentagon
     last year sent out a memo
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     to all of its service members,
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     warning them precisely not to use
     those commercial DNA kits
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     over concerns that information
     could be used to track them
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     or their family members.
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     And yet, even with the Pentagon
     raising concerns about this technology,
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     almost nothing has been done
     to reign in this market.
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     One American company, Clearview AI,

     ¶

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     has been collecting billions
     of images of people's faces
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     from across the internet,
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     like those pictures you post on Instagram
     of you and your friends and family,
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     and then selling its facial
     recognition services
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     to US government
     and law-enforcement agencies.
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     And even if you think
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     that's a perfectly acceptable
     application of this technology,
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     there's nothing to stop them
     from selling to private individuals,
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     corporations or even foreign governments.
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     And that's exactly
     what some companies are doing.
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     That Wiretappers' Ball
     that started in northern Virginia?

     ¶

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     Today, it's held in multiple cities
     around the globe.
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     Thousands of people now attend
     the ISS trainings and conferences.
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     And more of the companies showing up
     are coming from the Middle East and China.
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     The spy bazaar has gone global.
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     And at arms shows now around the world,
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     you'll see companies displaying
     facial recognition technology
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     and phone hacking software,
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     displaying right next
     to traditional arms manufacturers
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     with tanks and missiles.
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     And walking around these arms shows,
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     it's pretty easy to go down
     dystopian rabbit holes,
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     thinking about future
     surveillance technology
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     that will track our every move.
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     And I remember one
     Pentagon adviser telling me
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     that what the military really needed
     were space-based satellites
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     that could track people anywhere on earth
     based just on their DNA.
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     It's enough to make you invest
     in tinfoil hats.
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     But the truth is,

     ¶

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     we don't know what sort
     of technology the future will bring.
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     But we know that today,
     in the absence of regulation,
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     this marketplace is already exploding.
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     And in fact, one of those companies
     accused of selling surveillance technology
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     to authoritarian regimes,
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     today, it's offering to help track
     those infected with COVID-19.
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     And of course, technology does offer
     the tantalizing promise
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     of helping control a pandemic
     through contact tracing.
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     But it also opens up another door,
     to privatized mass surveillance.
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     So what do we do
     about this private spy bazaar?

     ¶

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     We can hide, go offline,
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     get off social media,
     ditch our smartphones,
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     go live in a cave,
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     but the truth is, we're not trained
     to be professional spies,
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     we can't live under false identities
     or with no identities.
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     And even real spies are having a hard time
     staying below the radar, these days.
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     It doesn't matter how many
     passports Jason Bourne has
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     if his face or DNA
     is in someone's database.
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     But if even governments have lost control
     of the tools of spying,
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     is there anything we can do about it?
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     One argument I've heard

     ¶

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     is that even if the US
     were to restrict companies
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     from selling this sort
     of technology abroad,
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     companies based in China
     might simply step in.
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     But we regulate the arms trade today,
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     even if we do it imperfectly.
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     And in fact, there was a multilateral
     proposal several years ago
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     to do just that,
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     to require export licenses
     for surveillance software.
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     The United States
     was among those countries
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     that agreed to these
     voluntary regulations,
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     but back in Washington,
     this proposal has simply languished.
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     We have an administration
     that would rather sell more weapons abroad
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     with fewer restrictions,
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     including to some of those countries
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     accused of abusing
     surveillance technology.
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     I think to move forward,
     we would need to revive that proposal,

     ¶

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     but even go one step further.
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     We need to fundamentally change
     how we think of surveillance technology
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     and define these tools as weapons.
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     This would allow government
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     to regulate and control
     their sale and export
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     the way that they control
     traditional arms,
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     advanced aircraft and missiles.
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     But that means recognizing
     that technology that tracks who we are,

     ¶

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     what we do, what we say,
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     and even in some cases, what we think,
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     is a form of advanced weaponry.
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     And these weapons
     are growing too powerful,
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     available to the highest bidder,
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     and according to the whims
     of the spy bazaar.
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     Thank you.