Now big brother ISI to tap phone calls emails of Pak citizens

It seems Pakistan is trying every possible way to spy on its citizens to gather data . The country’s intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), is now allegedly trying to assemble a sophisticated, National Security Agency-style mass surveillance system that would let it tap the phone calls and emails of hundreds of millions of people worldwide including Pakistanis in that country and abroad.

According to reports, Pakistan has been contacting with Western and other international companies to achieve its goal.

The report, by the UK-based advocacy group ‘Privacy International’, does not say if Pakistan has built the system. The report however, accessed never-before released documents that show how the ‘Targeted IP Monitoring System and the Common Operations Environment’ will help the ISI collect and analyse a “significant portion of the communications travelling within and through the country at a centralised command centre”.

It also raises concerns about what Pakistan — a country that has been accused of providing refuge to the Taliban and that has a history of cracking down on human rights activists — would do with the ability to carry out mass surveillance.

Pakistan was one of the so-called third party partners, approved to take part in gathering intelligence from electronic signals with the NSA. For years, the US-run surveillance program in Pakistan intercepted communications in the country and provided intelligence to U.S. military operations across the region.

But the Privacy International report published on Tuesday said Pakistan has begun developing its own capability and would not be relying on the US to gain access to hundreds of millions of people’s email, phone calls, and other communications.

The investigation carried out by Privacy International also shows that the mass communication surveillance programme, targeting politicians, media personnel, judiciary and other civil society groups has been in place since 2005. This raises serious concerns and will mean that human rights groups and citizens seeking greater democracy and freedom especially journalists will be at the centre of this new snooping programme.