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21 Jun 2022

Access Now raises concerns about the sale of surveillance technologies in Latin America & calls on more than 20 companies to respond to questions on human rights; inc. co. responses

CalMatters

In August 2021 Access Now published its "Surveillance Tech in Latin America: Made Abroad, Deployed at Home" report, a collaborative work with Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), the Laboratório de Políticas Públicas e Internet (LAPIN), and LaLibre.net (Tecnologías Comunitarias).

The report reveals that most of the surveillance technology deployed in Latin America is acquired from Israel, China, Japan, U.K., France, and the U.S., either directly or indirectly through a network of resellers. Among the suppliers, the report mentions AnyVision, Hikvision, Dahua Technology, Cellebrite, Huawei Technologies, ZTE, NEC, IDEMIA, and Verint, among others.

According to the report these companies and their resellers are flying under the radar, selling surveillance technology that is deployed across Latin America without sufficient transparency or public scrutiny, eroding democratic processes, and having negative impacts on the basic human rights of people in the region.

In May 2022 Access Now called the companies and resellers of the surveillance technologies deployed in Latin America and highlighted in its report about their operations and responsibility to respect human rights

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Andeantrade S.A., Oosto(formerly Anyvision), BGH Tech Partner S.A., Cellebrite, Dahua Technology, Danaide S.A., El Corte Inglés, Full Tecnología FullTec CIA Ltda. (FullTec), Hikvision, Huawei Technologies, IAFIS Argentina S.A., IBM, IDEMIA, Intelbras, Johnson Controls, NEC, Oí, RC International, Security Team Network S.A., Verint, ZTE, Unitech S.A., to respond to the allegation contained in the report. Only Cellebrite, Verint, IBM, IDEMIA, NEC, Intelbras, Oí, and Andeantrade S.A. responded.

We also invited these companies to respond to Access Now questions about their operations and responsibility to respect human rights. Only Intelbras, NEC, and RC International responded.

Update - Oí and Intelbras responded to the allegation contained in the report after the deadline on 10 June 2022.

Update - After this publication Access Now invited the companies and resellers of surveillance technologies to an interview as the last chance to contact them in the cases they have not responded to before, and to follow up on their human rights responsibility. Only Cellebrite, Intelbras, and NEC responded to the interview request, and Access Now published them on 7 October 2022.

Company Responses

Huawei

No Response

Verint View Response
IDEMIA (formerly Morpho) View Response
RC International

No Response

Unitech S.A.

No Response

ZTE

No Response

Security Team Network S.A.

No Response

Oí (formerly Telmar) View Response
Johnson Controls

No Response

Intelbras View Response
IAFIS Group

No Response

Hikvision

No Response

Full Tecnología FullTec CIA Ltda. (FullTec)

No Response

El Corte Inglés

No Response

Danaide S.A.

No Response

Cellebrite (part of Sun Corporation) View Response
Dahua Technology

No Response

BGH Tech Partner S.A.

No Response

Oosto (formerly AnyVision)

No Response

Andeantrade S.A. View Response

Timeline