Vodafone operates in 29 countries in Europe and Asia. Its report sheds light on the ‘hows and wheres’ of government spying on calls. It was published despite risk to company employees in those countries. The legacy of Edward Snowden continues.

“The report focuses on the two categories of law enforcement demands that account for the overwhelming majority of all such activity: lawful interception and access to communications data.” – ZDNet

That risk to employees was, however mitigated:

“While in most places Vodafone retains control over the systems used for lawful interception of communications, it revealed that in a small number of countries where it operates (which it did not name), the authorities have direct access to an operator's network, bypassing the telco completely.” – ibid

The report regarding Europe revealed that there is very little consistency or coherence in law and agency between the neighboring European states. They revealed the laws and stats of 29 countries, 10 of which had never had these stats and laws put in the public purveyance before. Worse, these stats actually reveal little about the levels of surveillance.

“The also company pointed out that there trying to shine a light on the murky area of government surveillance can have consequences. "Our decision to make the disclosures set out in this report is therefore not without risk. In some countries, providing what to many observers would seem to be relatively anodyne information about the legal powers and processes used by agencies and authorities could lead to criminal sanctions against Vodafone employees." – ibid

You can access the report HERE.

“Let he who is without spies cast the first accusation.”