"Surveillance Tech in Latin America: Made Abroad, Deployed at Home”, 24 August 2021

We are increasingly aware of the impact digital technology has on our rights. Lawmakers around the world are turning their attention to companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, and in many cases they are developing new laws and policies to regulate these gatekeepers of fundamental rights. But other companies are flying under the radar, selling surveillance technology that is deployed across Latin America without sufficient transparency or public scrutiny. This is eroding democratic processes, stripping us of privacy, and undermining freedom of speech and other basic human rights.

... as we reveal in this report, most of the surveillance technology deployed in Latin America is acquired from Asia (Israel, China, and Japan), Europe (U.K. and France), and the U.S., either directly or indirectly through a network of dealers. These suppliers include AnyVision, Hikvision, Dahua, Cellebrite, Huawei, ZTE, NEC, IDEMIA, and VERINT, among others.

This report is an effort to expose the companies behind these dangerous products and the government purchasing and deployment policies and practices that are undermining people’s rights.