Human rights campaigner Privacy International has called HM Revenue & Customs for a probe into the UK based surveillance technology firm Gamma International, which is alleged to be exporting prohibited surveillance products without licences to organisations with poor human rights records.
The surveillance tech firm however denies selling to oppressive regimes and says it meets all the rules of export controls.
According to the campaign group Privacy International, the equipments sold by the surveillance tech firm have been used to collect information on activists targeted by the repressive regimes.
The campaign group has also demanded greater limits on the export of surveillance products, which are increasingly being deployed, but exported with reduced level of restrictions compared to traditional weapons.
Privacy International head of research Eric King said that the group welcomes Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) acknowledgement that exports of Gamma International’s FinSpy should be controlled.
"It is an extremely dangerous tool that until now they have been selling to repressive regimes with impunity," King said.
"Now it is up to HM Revenue & Customs to demonstrate that it can quickly and effectively lay down the law.
"Every day that exports of FinSpy go unchecked further jeopardises the work and lives of human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists."
Gamma International alleges that its surveillance technology offers offensive techniques for information gathering and can gather intercepts of texts, phone and Skype calls, log keystrokes and copy files.
In August 2012, BIS notified Gamma International that its FinSpy products, designed to use controlled cryptography required a licence to export to all destinations beyond the European Union, while has also confirmed the firm had submitted a control list classification (CLC) investigation.
