Amnesty International rolls out new tool to detect government surveillance
Human rights charity Amnesty International has launched a new tool to enable journalists and human rights defenders to avoid being spied on by the government.
According to Amnesty International, the new Detekt tool is the first tool to be made available to the public that detects major known surveillance spyware, some of which is used by governments, in computers.
It has been developed by security researcher Claudio Guarnieri, and is being launched in partnership with Amnesty International, Digitale Gesellschaft, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy International.
“Detekt is a simple tool that will alert activists to such intrusions so they can take action,” commented Marek Marczynski, head of military, security and police at Amnesty International. “It represents a strike back against governments who are using information obtained through surveillance to arbitrarily detain, illegally arrest and even torture human rights defenders and journalists.”
The charity will use its networks to help activists across the world learn about Detekt and scan their devices for signs of spyware. It will also engage in testing with its local partners and networks which are considered at high-risk of being targeted by such spyware.