Ears and eyes

Below are extracts from an article published on the website North Shore Counter-Info. The complete article can be read here: https://north-shore.info/2020/08/20/details-of-police-surveillance-targeting-wetsuweten-solidarity-organizing.

North Shore Counter-Info has received legal documents that have not yet been made public containing details about recent investigations targeting anarchists in Southern Ontario who have been engaged with Wet’suwet’en solidarity organizing in 2019 and 2020. Many of these details confirm practices of surveillance that many suspect take place, but that aren’t usually taken seriously. This includes collaboration by big tech companies, tracking devices, and long periods of active surveillance.

We can confirm the following:

• The police sought and obtained a 492.1(1) warrant to track an individual’s location by attaching a tracing device to their vehicle.
  • This warrant was granted within 24 hours
  • This warrant would authorize the device to be in place for up to 60 days, or up to a year if it pertains to a criminal organization or terrorism (and recall that anarchists in Ontario are frequently accused of being both)

A brochure about the french State intelligence services was recently published on the Internet. Below you will find a link to the article announcing its publication, as well as links to download the brochure, in english and french.

• Article announcing the publication of the brochure (in french) : https://attaque.noblogs.org/post/2020/06/14/brochure-le-renseignement-francais
• The brochure in english : https://attaque.noblogs.org/files/2020/06/french_intelligence_en.pdf
• The brochure in french : https://attaque.noblogs.org/files/2020/06/french_intelligence_fr.pdf

This brochure provides some information about the subject we are interested in. It is composed of articles from the IntelligenceOnline website. It includes in particular (the page numbers match the english version of the brochure) :

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We received by email nine official documents published by italian courts or other italian agencies that illustrate the interactions between Italian justice and surveillance companies. In this article, we explain the content of these documents, and give links to the documents themselves (in italian).

On this website, we usually write about the use of physical surveillance devices (such as hidden microphones and cameras, GPS trackers) by cops in investigations. But in many judicial systems, long-term investigations also involve prosecutors and special judges. In Italy, as we will see, prosecutors often directly purchase services of environmental interceptions (intercettazioni ambientali), which means putting spying devices where you live.

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When cops decide to spy on us using surveillance devices such as hidden microphones and cameras or GPS trackers, they need to get the devices from somewhere. It seems that they often buy these devices from private companies. The companies that manufacture and market those devices are part of what we call the surveillance industry.

We think that understanding how the surveillance industry works, who sells the surveillance devices to the cops and what the devices look like will help us to oppose this surveillance. So we have started a research work focused on this industry, and particularly on the companies that participate in it.

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As part of our research work on surveillance devices placed by cops, we publish a list of examples of found surveillance devices. This list hadn’t beed updated since november 2018. It is now up-to-date with recent findings of devices and can be downloaded here. Specifically, documentation was added on :

• A device found in a squat in Grenoble, France, in august 2018.
• Cameras found outside during a gathering in Sarthe, France in september 2018.
• A microphone found in a car in Cremona, Italy, in february.
• Six microphones and a camera found in a house in Trento, Italy, in march.
• Microphones found in a squat in Turin, Italy, in march.
• A device found outside during a gathering in Cuneo, Italy, in june.
• A microphone and two GPS trackers found in a vehicle in Italy in august.

As stated in our call for contributions, we try to focus on surveillance carried out by intelligence agencies and political police against individuals or groups doing subversive actions. If you wish to contribute informations, documentation, translations, or you are simply interested in the subject, you can contact us.