German authorities have raided the offices of FinFisher, a Munich software company, which makes surveillance tools and has been accused in the past of providing software to oppressive regimes. German prosecutors launched the investigation upon the criminal complaint of GFF (Society for Civil Rights), a Berlin based non-profit human rights organisation.
According to “zdnet.com” – a website which provides technology news- FinFisher software has been “used against Turkish opposition activists.” The spyware can access address books, photos and listen to phone calls.
The surveillance program manufacturer is accused of violating Germany’s “Foreign Trade Act” via selling software system abroad without proper authorisation.
Germany strictly regulates this kind of technology exportation and Turkey does not have a licence to buy the monitoring software.
In 2018 German media reported that, this surveillance software had been used against opposition activists in Turkey. Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) made similar accusations about Finfisher back in 2017.
Sarah Lincoln, a lawyer at GFF said that “German companies should not be pawn of an oppressive regime.”
