EFF has long advocated for greater vigilance over the potential sale of specially-developed surveillance tools to oppressive regimes that use technology to commit human rights abuses. We want those countries to be held legally accountable for such conduct, and have rallied tech companies to take steps to prevent their products and services from being used for censorship and/or to target and harm activists. But when we saw the proposal of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Commerce Department for implementation of the latest changes to the Wassenaar Arrangement export controls—which would require export licenses for the sale of certain surveillance technology—we saw that the BIS had drafted a vague, overbroad, and contradictory set of rules that have the potential to chill legitimate research into security vulnerabilities that will keep data and devices secure from attacks. EFF joined a coalition of six advocacy organizations, including Human…
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