May 30, 2024 – Tammy Nguyen
It had been exactly one year since I heard the subway tracks of the TTC while waiting for the speakers to announce: “Now arriving at St. George. St. George Station.” I then hurdled through the station to exit on Bedford St. Last time I walked down this road, I carried with me a graduation gown thinking it would be a while before I returned to the streets of my hometown. As soon as I left the subway station, I was greeted with a giant billboard that resoundingly reminded me I was at UofT. I thought to myself: “I’m home.” I then walked through the doors of the Munk School and everything felt so familiar. My first task of the day was to attend onboarding. I was the only employee in attendance while my new colleague presented a Google slides presentation on the logistics of my internship. While attempting to remember the do’s and don’ts as the new legal intern, I caught a glimpse of the Varsity Field where I once rallied with my frosh group as an eighteen year old girl. Back then, technology and human rights were two words I never thought could pair together.
After onboarding, my new colleagues and I walked over to a restaurant in Yorkville for lunch. I soaked in the sunny skyscraper scene of Toronto while exchanging introductions. The next day, I was assigned my first task, a memo on different efforts taken by the German government to address the abuse of spyware in Germany or abroad Full disclosure, this was the second memo I ever wrote in my entire life as a law student. While drawing from my experience in integration week and zero knowledge on spyware in Germany, I entered the cyber world. A world that I was not only unfamiliar with, but also much darker than the scenery that set my internship. My research focussed on malicious spyware that has been used by governments, or state hackers, to spy on political opponents and/or exiled dissidents. The main focus of my memo was on the status of the Finfisher litigation, one of the earliest groups of companies selling spyware to governments, including Turkey and Bahrain where it had been used to target political opposition and activists. As I progressed throughout the memo, I eventually learned about other spyware, such as Pegasus. It was developed by the NSO Group, an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm. This powerful spyware is installed on targeted devices without the owner’s knowledge, allowing for tracking, spying, and data theft. Despite being sold only to government agencies, allegations of misuse have emerged, including targeting political opponents. German authorities have purchased and used spyware like Pegasus for counterterrorism and organized crime, raising concerns over privacy and government overreach. Although the German Constitutional Court has imposed limitations on surveillance practices, digital transnational repression (DTR) remains a significant issue, with dissidents in exile frequently targeted.
During my research, I was also tasked with finding specific cases of Pegasus infections as part of state actors’ implementation of Digital Transnational Repression. While I was deeply unfamiliar with writing a memo and the global spyware trade, this part of my internship resonated with me on a personal level. Each case I read reflected on different stories of people from all walks of life who share the desire of maintaining their right to free speech. Many of these victims are refugees or asylum seekers residing in the Western hemisphere in hopes of safely continuing their activism. As a grand-daughter of a prisoner of conscience who was sentenced to twenty-one years under the Vietnamese communist regime, learning about these stories felt both deeply familiar, yet unsettlingly unfamiliar at the same time. Transnational Repression has been a practice for multiple decades against dissidents, however, the 21st century brings unprecedented challenges as malicious spyware continues to evolve.
As I conclude my first month at the Citizen Lab, I reflect on how some things may be familiar and close to home, but can serve as a setting for something unknown and new. The streets of UofT were no longer a familiar backdrop of my hometown, but a complex web of new challenges in human rights and technology. I am eager to explore both the old and the new during this internship.