From Dawn: IT seems that the goings-on in judges’ homes is not the only thing that piques Big Brother’s curiosity. Our security apparatus also listens to what ordinary citizens are talking about on their phones, reads the messages they exchange with other people, and watches what they do on the internet.
This startling revelation has come to light recently, thanks to a submission to the Islamabad High Court. The information given to the court revealed that the country’s telecom regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, has forced telecom companies to implement a mass surveillance system through which up to 4m citizens can be monitored at any given time with the click of a button.
Called the ‘Lawful’ Intercept Management System in true Orwellian nomenclature, this system is being run without any regulatory checks and balances or legal controls, allowing the intrusive eyes and ears of unnamed intelligence agencies to spy on anyone they want.
‘Leaked’ phone calls involving prominent citizens had dominated news headlines and social media not so long ago, prompting petitions from some of the affected individuals against intrusive surveillance by the state. The existence of LIMS may not have come to light had the IHC’s Justice Babar Sattar, who heard a petition on the matter, not insisted on demanding answers from the state about who had the power and resources to conduct such surveillance of civilians.
What has since been uncovered is chilling for anyone who cherishes personal freedoms. The judge noted in his order that citizens’ data was being collected without any human intervention or legal warrant, with “the entire content of communication between consumers undertaken through the network of the telecom licensee, including audio and video content and web page records”, being shared with unnamed agencies, according to news reports…
More here.
