US govt pushes spyware to other countries? Senator Wyden would like a word

The US International Trade Administration (ITA) has admitted it promotes the sale of American-approved commercial spyware to foreign governments, and won't answer questions about it, according to US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Wyden, in a letter to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, has demanded answers about the surveillance …

[Martin-73]

It's a crime no matter who does it

Prosecute them. The USA is evil

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

You mean like Google and Facebook ?

[veti]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

So many questions... Whom do you want to do this prosecution? Of whom? For what? In what courts? Based on what evidence?

Just because you think something is wrong, doesn't make it "a crime".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

"Just because you think"

In most countries spying is a crime. Just because you think it's not, doesn't make it so.

[TheMaskedMan]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

"In most countries spying is a crime."

Depends who is the spy, and who the spied upon, doesn't it? If it's a citizen spying upon their government, then you can bet your ass it's a crime, regardless of their reasons for doing so. On the other hand, if the government spies on the citizens, it probably isn't even frowned upon, let alone illegal.

In this case, it seems Ike the clients are governments, or departments thereof, so that's ok then. And since they tend to have lots of money it's even better. For the companies selling the spyware, anyway. Not so much for the poor buggers being spied upon,of course.

[garwhale]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

Ah, governments employ spies to spy on other entities. The FBI routinely "spies" on criminals. These are generally not seen as crimes, and indeed are paid for by the government. Not to mention the NSA, CIA, and about 15 other agencies.

[Cav]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

"In most countries spying is a crime. Just because you think it's not, doesn't make it so."

Only in your bizarre, alternate reality. In this reality, governments spy on terrorists, criminals and other threats all within the law. The problem is that there are legitimate reasons for spying - preventing terrorism for example - and then there are illegitimate reasons - spying on journalists critical of corrupt government officials for example. The latter is a crime, in most civilised countries, the former is not. And this is the rightful situation. You can't ham-string our intelligence forces and then whine about terrorist attacks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's a crime no matter who does it

We (US) want to, as they are breaking our laws. Problem is - corruption is so bad in governments that we can't prosecute them. Nobody in government power positions gets any grief, unless they piss of their boss or blows a whistle. Then, well, things go down hill. Add ITA to the list of tri letter corruption clubs in US gov.