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Article

16 Jan 2018

Author:
European Parliament

Cyber technology: preventing human rights abuses

EU export controls are being revamped to ensure European goods and technologies, such as cyber-surveillance tools, cannot be used for human rights violations.

The EU has rules to ensure that goods and technologies produced for civilian use in Europe cannot be abused for other ends when being exported. These are also known as dual-use items as they can be used for both civilian and military applications, for example to develop weapons of mass destruction or commit terrorist acts... 

These rules are currently being updated to take into account new technological developments... One of the main changes is to prevent the abuse of cyber-surveillance technologies, which authoritarian regimes could use to spy on their own people, be it to hack computers or to intercept mobile phones. Parliament’s trade committee proposes to add clear-cut criteria and definitions to the regulation to strengthen the right to privacy, data and freedom of assembly. The committee also made other proposals such as introducing similar penalties for non-compliance across the EU.