Wikileaks and the Spy Files

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange prepares to present Spy Files, an examination of the global surveillance industry

Wikileaks says Big Brother is watching and has been for quite some time. Today Julian Assange announced the organization's release of more than 280 files detailing the activities of an international surveillance industry.

"Who here has an iphone? Who here has a Blackberry? Who here uses Gmail? Well you're all screwed," he told journalists and students at a press conference. "The reality is intelligence contractors are selling, right now, mass surveillance systems for all those products."


Assange and those who partnered with Wikileaks for this research say these systems can collect and store information from entire populations. They can also access individual email accounts and gain remote control of people's smart phones (using the camera to take pictures, the mic to record sound, and the GPS system to track the unknowing owner).


The most damning allegations were directed against a french company, accused of providing an advanced monitoring system to Colonel Gaddafi's regime in Libya in order to suppress its opponents. 


Other companies faced charges of collaborating with repressive governments in Syria, Egypt and Tunisia.

With research partners in Europe, the US and India, Wikileaks says it has traced over 160 companies in 25 countries that provide these kinds of surveillance technologies. 

You can find the Spy Files here, including a manual alleged to be created specifically for Libyan police aiming to quash dissent.