U.S. Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton Warns Tech Business Not To Help Tyrants

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning Internet and software companies to beware what they sell to autocratic governments.

Clinton says authoritarian governments are trying to use the same tools of online connection to spy on or restrict citizens. She says those governments sometimes get help from companies that knowingly sell online surveillance software or other tools.

Clinton says that when companies sell surveillance equipment to the Syrian or Iranian security agency – or to Libya in the past – "there can be no doubt that it will be used to restrict human rights."

She spoke at an international conference on Internet freedom in the Netherlands partly sponsored by Google. She did not identify any companies by name for alleged bad practices.

Comments

[kenl77]

12:39 PM on 12/12/2011

"Clinton says that when companies sell surveillance equipment to the Syrian or Iranian security agency – or to Libya in the past – "there can be no doubt that it will be used to restrict human rights."

I can't understand how anyone, let alone someone as intelligent as her, can say such things with a straight face, as if tech companies should know better.

Capitalism has no morality. It has no sense of right or wrong. It has no inkling of patriotism.

Capitalism has only one value, one goal: profit.

Capitalism is destroying the environment, the very nest in which it lives.
It bribes, coerces, and controls politicians to achieve total domination of the governing process.
It destroys nations in which it has free rein.

Capitalism is destroying America and the vast majority of its people.

It is so omnipotent that many profess to believe that this is the way things should be, that there is no alternative.

They are wrong. There is another way.

[Wide Stance]

10:22 PM on 12/11/2011

Not usually a fashion critic, but who's doing her hair these days?

[MIKEinNYC]

05:43 PM on 12/11/2011

If there money in it these companies will go for that business. You have to make it not pay for them with either fines or incentives like new legitimate business.

[ontariogirl]

04:30 PM on 12/11/2011

Spying on people......oh now come on Hilary. Surely you jest. :O

[dont believe everything]

04:42 AM on 12/11/2011

this almost made me fall off my chair, america the biggest joke in the world, the land of the hypocrites has struck again with the only foriegn policy that they've ever been consistant with in their entire history. we can do it, but you better not even think about it !

pot, meet kettle.

what was that south park show about some years back, team america, world police ? why dont you clean up your own house before you start telling everyone else how to run theirs.

[becky bradshaw]

06:54 PM on 12/10/2011

China? South Korea? Singapore?

[BDinJoburg]

04:09 PM on 12/10/2011

Has Hillary Clinton forgotten the warrentless wire-tapping exposed by Wired?

Has she forgotten that the Patriot Act (renewed by the administration she represents) is being increasingly invoked and has scope to collect data off-shore in a manner that many believe flouts international law? It is a law so obtuse that its interpretation may not be fully publicly revealed.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/senator-the-real-patriot-act-is-classified/10286

Has she forgotten that the president of Cisco who became frustrated at being pilloried for buckling to demands of the Chinese government argued that their demands were no different than those of Western governments?

I do not for a moment believe that she has forgotten any of these things - she simply believes that the entitlements she and the USA deserve are beyond question. This hypocrisy undermines her legitimacy.

[Wirehedd]

03:23 PM on 12/10/2011

countries like the USA?

[Joseph Joyal]

02:37 PM on 12/10/2011

What about the local governments that are plowing down OWS or our own government selling to these same countries. Or buying from tyrants

[jennielake]

02:32 PM on 12/10/2011

Let me get this straight...

DONT sell to OTHER Governments as it might be used to spy on or restrict citizens...

… as opposed to selling it to OUR Government so we can use it to spy on or restrict citizens.

Got it!

[Thanks4Watching]

12:25 AM on 12/10/2011

They're already resisting tyrants. Hence why the SOPA/PIPA supporters are now trying (in vain) to start a media blitz.

[tuff guy]

11:23 PM on 12/09/2011

i'm so over the clintons and the bushes. let's get some progressive new blood in government.

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

04:43 PM on 12/11/2011

Who, and how.

[xphilosoph]

11:23 PM on 12/09/2011

Unfortunately, Secretary Clinton comes off as being hypocritical saying these things about other countries.
The US government:
- though DARPA requisitioned and funded the original ARPANET which evolved into the internet.
- via the NSA invented and implemented modern large scale eavesdropping and spying, even on encrypted message traffic. They have done this both internationally and domestically for years.
- by law actively suppresses effective "non-standard" encryption technologies (ones the NSA cannot readily break).
- requires all network equipment manufacturers and carriers to make traffic monitoring available on demand to "authorities".
- is now working to regulate and control the internet and beyond that, its content.
- is right now trying to pass legislation to allow anyone (American Citizen or not) who is suspected (not proven) of terrorism to be held indefinitely and without trial.

So governments like the Chinese actually require a lot of catch up to match existing US capabilities.

The only difference was that the US government did not overtly and publicly use these capabilities against their OWN people, til recently.

That is why we all want and should DEMAND, REAL freedom and democracy.
The US and others are now definitely moving down a very dangerous path.

Regrettably, George Orwell (see 1984) may soon be remembered as a naive optimist.

[uneeda]

10:18 PM on 12/09/2011

hillary's gone for the golda meir look

[Fodder-wing]

01:48 PM on 12/10/2011

Jessica Tandy, don't you think?

[MsSKWESQ]

03:04 PM on 12/10/2011

She looks very tired and her hair style is very unflattering. More importantly, her words are worrisome.

[flashfyre]

09:40 PM on 12/09/2011

Speaking of tech companies and autocratic governments -- I think the US government will be having a "mobile epiphany" just about the time the new low power Intel chips and Windows 8 for tablets is released. WinTel + US Government forever, it looks like.