Managing Surveillance Technology in the International System: How To Prevent Its Misuse

The U.S., along with Australia, Denmark and Norway, has announced the creation of an international framework to control the export of surveillance technology. This is the first multilateral export control system to prevent human rights abuses associated with surveillance. Britain, France, the Netherlands and Canada have expressed their support as well.

The regulations will cover facial recognition technology using artificial intelligence, surveillance cameras and spyware that extracts location information and email content from smartphones.

When used properly, advanced technology has the power to enrich people’s knowledge and interactions, and to advance a free and open society. However, depending on how they are used, they can also become a tool for governments to identify and track opposing forces, and to censor or silence opinions that differ from their own.

China is said to be using surveillance technology to suppress the Uighur minority in Xinjiang. The U.S. government has imposed sanctions, including an investment ban, on a Hong Kong-based Chinese company for providing the Chinese government with technology to identify the Uighurs.

We must not create a chain of events where advanced technologies from Japan, the U.S. and Europe are taken in by China, or one where China’s surveillance technologies spread to other powerful states.

In the U.S.-led framework, a code of conduct will be drawn up that stipulates export standards, etc.; the participating states will develop domestic control systems based on this code. The code of conduct will not have binding power. This may have been done in consideration of the fact that different states have different legal systems for export control.

At present, Japan has not expressed its support for or participation in the framework. This is believed to be partly due to the lack of domestic legislation.

In some respects, it is difficult to check one by one how advanced technologies will actually be used in the export destination. Japan should closely exchange opinions with the U.S. and accelerate specific studies on which technologies should be regulated for export and how.

The case of Israel can serve as an example, as Israel decided to regulate its own spyware in response to strong criticism that it was being used to spy on politicians and journalists in its export markets.

In order to approve the export of this product, the government of the receiving state will be required to pledge that it will only be used to prevent terrorism and serious crimes.

For states with advanced information technologies, advanced technology is the lifeblood of the economy, but it is not enough to just export it. It is only when democracies set an example that they can increase the pressure on powerful nations.