The Shameful Exodus: Surveillance Firm Abandons 56 "Non-Democratic" Countries in Desperate Attempt to Clean Up its Dirty Reputation
In a move that’s being hailed as a moral victory by human rights advocates, but is likely just a cynical PR stunt by a company trying to save its skin, Sandvine, the notorious maker of surveillance software that enabled authoritarian regimes to spy on and censor their citizens, is fleeing dozens of "non-democratic" countries in a major overhaul of its operations.
The company, which has been accused of selling its technology to oppressive governments, including Egypt, Belarus, and the United Arab Emirates, claims it’s making this move to focus on "democratic" countries, whatever that means. But the real question is: what took them so long?
As part of this supposed "new chapter," Sandvine has already abandoned 32 countries and is in the process of leaving another 24, although it refuses to disclose which ones. The only country it’s willing to name is Egypt, where it promises to leave by the end of March 2025.
This dramatic shift in strategy comes after years of investigative reporting by Bloomberg, which exposed Sandvine’s complicity in human rights abuses and web censorship. And it’s not just the company’s customers that have been watching – the U.S. Department of Commerce has also been keeping a close eye on Sandvine, putting it on a blocklist in 2024 for selling its products to the Egyptian government.
But the real question is: is this move a genuine attempt to reform, or just a PR stunt to salvage Sandvine’s reputation? The company’s refusal to provide a full list of the countries it’s abandoning, or explain how it will ensure that its technology won’t be used for nefarious purposes in the future, only adds to the skepticism.
As one expert noted, "For a long time, we knew about the harm but didn’t know what might effectively pump the brakes on out-of-control surveillance tech proliferation. Sandvine’s tailspin shows that the U.S. model, which includes sanctions, can have a direct positive impact."
But until Sandvine comes clean about its past, and commits to transparency and accountability in its future dealings, it’s hard to take its claims of reform seriously.
