[Hardware] Telenor denies installing internet surveillance hardware

[FazzNoth]

Norway’s Telenor Group said today that it is selling its Myanmar business because it did not want to install surveillance equipment that would be used to spy on its customers by the junta.

Spokesperson Gry Rohde Nordhus told the Democratic Voice of Burma today that installing the hardware would violate Norwegian and EU sanctions on Myanmar meant to prevent the military from carrying out serious human rights abuses. Nordhus said Telenor Myanmar has not yet installed the devices and would not do so voluntarily. Doing so would give the military leadership access to data on millions of users.

His comments came a week after a rights organization accused Telenor Group of installing and maintaining the internet eavesdropping hardware, which would violate sanctions if it was sold and transferred to a military-linked company.

Telenor says it’s first priority is the safety of its employees. The junta has prevented at least one of those employees, Telenor Myanmar CEO Jon Omund Revhaug, from leaving the country.

Justice for Myanmar reported that Telenor bought hardware that allows the government to spy on users from a German company, based on leaked information revealed by the group. It called on the German and Norwegian governments to intervene urgently, as Telenor was believed to be preparing to transfer the technology as part of its divestment in the country.

According to Justice for Myanmar, Chinese tech giant Huawei helped acquire the hardware, a Utimaco LIG, via its Singapore office and shipped it to Myanmar in 2018. Unimaco provided technical support through Huawei and also had an indirect relationship with Telenor Myanmar.

In May 2018, it was integrated into Telenor’s telecommunications system and by mid-2020 had been connected to a monitoring center. With it in place, the junta would have the capability to simultaneously monitor multiple phone calls and messages on the Telenor network through the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Yadanar Aung of Justice for Myanmar told Coconuts on Wednesday that such interception technology should only be provided to legitimate governments for lawful purposes, saying Myanmar’s junta is a terrorist organization with no authority to use Utimaco’s technology.

“If Utimaco technology is made available to the junta, Telenor and Utimaco will be directly complicit in the abuses that will result. We call on the German and Norwegian governments to urgently act to stop Telenor’s sale of the lawful interception gateway, which will further violate the EU arms embargo,” she said.

A year later, junta won’t let Telenor Myanmar head go home
Justice for Myanmar said that Telenor made clear its priority was to its employees in a statement saying it “has to leave in a way that does not increase the danger to its employees, and that remains our top priority for now.”

According to Myanmar Now, once Lebanese investment firm M1 Group has completed its purchase of the company, it is expected to hand control over to the military-allied Shwe Byine Phyu, which will acquire 80% of its shares, giving it the power to hand over any customer data demanded by the regime.

The junta has “engaged in systematic and widespread human rights violations and abuses – some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a report out Tuesday.

Its special rapporteur on the situation, Thomas H. Andrews, said the junta has waged a “devastating” war against the people of Myanmar. 

“Junta forces have killed at least 1,600 civilians and displaced over 500,000. Half of the po[CENSORED]tion has fallen into poverty. The World Health Organization is now projecting that there will be over 47,000 preventable deaths in Myanmar this year.”

https://coconuts.co/yangon/news/telenor-denies-installing-internet-surveillance-hardware/