Companies that stand up against crime and abuses

In our series of blog posts on the relationship between companies and governments, we will this time look at companies that stand up against crime and abuses.

One well-known example lately is the US company Lavabit. When Lavabit was forced to participate in what they and many others believe to be criminal activities, the founder decided to instead shut down the company’s operations. However, the government’s abuse of power goes even further than destroying the company, because the founder Ladar Levison is obviously under a so-called gag order, so he cannot say much about what happened. Despite this, he tries to say as much as he can.

Newspapers and other media also often stand up against crime and abuses, by publishing information about it. It is their job to do that, and a very important job. How can democracy work, if ordinary citizens are withheld information about government-related crime and abuse of power? It can’t, of course. Therefore it is very disturbing that even media can secretly be issued a gag order, be infiltrated or be censored, even in countries often viewed as democracies, such as Israel.

When governments try to destroy companies like these, they are actually be attacking the foundation of democracy. We owe a tribute to all who stand up against that.

Companies fail to take action

Sadly, many companies remain totally silent regarding government-related crime and fail to take action against it, even when they may be victims. One example appears to be the business-oriented social networking service LinkedIn. In 2013 it was revealed that the British GCHQ has set up fake LinkedIn pages to insert malware on users’ computers, which caused me to send LinkedIn the following e-mail (the e-mail address below was the only address to them I could find):

Från: Sven Ruin [mailto:sven.ruin@teroc.se]
Skickat: den 26 februari 2014 10:40
Till: ‘press@linkedin.com’
Ämne: Security risks
Prioritet: Hög

Dear LinkedIn team,

As a user of LinkedIn, I have been very surprised that I have not heard anything from you regarding the security risks related to LinkedIn, which were revealed last year (see for example www.spiegel.de/international/world/ghcq-targets-engineers-with-fake-linkedin-pages-a-932821.html). I would have expected you to for example warn your users and take legal action against suspected government agencies. Since you seem to do nothing about this, I’m now considering to delete my LinkedIn account and recommend others to do the same. However, I first want to ask if you have done anything about this that I have missed or if you are about to take action?

My hope is that you want to take a clear stand against the alleged government crime, to insert malware on users computers and abuse the name of LinkedIn in this process.

I would be very thankful for your reply. Please be aware that I’m planning to post this conversation on a public website, because I think this is a valid concern for many.

Best regards,

Sven Ruin

TEROC AB
Odensvi Barksta 20
SE-73193 Köping
Sweden
Tel: +46-221-60160, +46-70-2298678 (mobile)
E-mail: sven.ruin@teroc.se
Website: www.teroc.se

Now it is May 2014, and I have still not seen any response from LinkedIn on this topic, so I’m deleting my LinkedIn account. I recommend all users of LinkedIn to consider this too.

Read more about how the USA and Sweden are also involved this type of computer crimes.

Companies complicit in government abuses

In a series of blog posts, we will be looking at the relationship between private companies and governments.

During the last year, we have seen a number of reports about companies that are accused to be highly complicit in government abuses of power, for example:

  • Government contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton, which is part of the Carlyle Group. They have even been described as the Face of Evil.
  • Internet infrastructure providers, such as Cisco. One might have guessed before that this US-based company had helped the US government to spy, but now it seems they have even helped the Chinese government.
  • Well-known software companies, including Microsoft, which seem to have betrayed the trust of their users.

At the same time, companies like these claim to work by high ethical standards. As Cisco puts it in Ethics@Cisco:

A strong commitment to ethics is critical to our long-term success as a company. The message for each employee is clear: any success that is not achieved ethically is no success at all. At Cisco, we hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, and we will not tolerate anything less.

Something is obviously wrong here. How can a company be working to the highest ethical standards and at the same time have a court case against them for actively marketing, selling and supporting technologies for human rights abuses?

Unfortunately, it seems that too many companies are following the example set by governments: To lie.

New hope for Dawit Isaak

The Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak has been imprisoned for 13 years without trial in Eritrea. Today media has reported that there is new hope for him to be released. We hope this will come true and also that one day, governments and officials will face legal consequences for all the forced disappearances and arbitrary detentions they have caused.

War crimes and disappearances in Sri Lanka

The UN Human Rights Council has recently voted in favour of an inquiry into alleged atrocities carried out during Sri Lanka’s civil war. It is also reported that violations have continued in Sri Lanka despite the end of the war. For example, Prageeth Eknaligoda was reported missing on 24 January 2010 and his family claims that Sri Lanka government is directly responsible for the disappearance.