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A woman checks her SMS messages and emails on a smartphone

06.12.21

Big Tech

Spam, Spies, SMS: how it works

Little-known bulk messaging companies use the access they’ve brokered to hundreds of phone networks to send millions of messages cheaply and quickly around the world. But this efficiency comes at a co...

A man uses his phone to access an account on his laptop with two-step verification

06.12.21

Big Tech

Swiss tech company boss accused of selling mobile network access for spying

Mitto AG’s network used to track people via mobile phones, former employees say

24.02.21

Big Tech

Revealed: Data giant given ‘emergency’ Covid contract had been wooing NHS for months

Controversial tech firm Palantir now holds £23m deal to oversee critical data store of patient records

16.12.20

Big Tech

The rapid rise of phone surveillance firms

An investigation has found evidence of phone intrusions by private intelligence companies in more than 60 countries. How did we get to this point?

16.12.20

Big Tech

Spy companies using Channel Islands to track phones around the world

A security vulnerability in phone technology is being exploited by private intelligence companies via small networks in Jersey and Guernsey

28.04.20

Big Tech

Monitoring being pitched to fight Covid-19 was tested on refugees

The pandemic has given a boost to controversial data-driven initiatives to track population movements, developed in response to the so-called migrant crisis of 2015, as part of efforts to stem the tid...

14.11.19

Big Tech

Prisoner risk algorithm could program in racism

The Bureau has discovered there are grave concerns about new tool developed by the Ministry of Justice to determine how prisoners are assigned to different types of prison

08.05.19

Big Tech

How is government using big data? The Bureau wants to find out

The findings of a six-month research project investigating government IT contracts raise major concerns about public scrutiny and accountability

29.01.19

Shadow Wars

Death and disappearance: Inside the world of privatised war

The story of Sabre, a private military company that mysteriously disappeared after a group of its employees were killed, offers a window onto the companies that profit in conflict zones worldwide

06.03.18

Shadow Wars

Foreign Office diplomat on "leave" at Saudi Crown Prince's PR firm

The senior UK diplomat is at the heart of a multimillion pound effort to rebrand Saudi Arabia

07.12.17

Lobbying’s Hidden Influence

Astroturfing, Twitterbots, Amplification - Inside the Online Influence Industry

How to manipulate social media with fake grassroots activity

20.09.17

Europe Under Scrutiny

Online battle for right wing hearts and minds in German election

The German right fights to build its new Breitbart

05.09.17

Lobbying’s Hidden Influence

Bell Pottinger "incited racial hatred" in South Africa

Is it "curtains" for PR firm Bell Pottinger after it "incited racial hatred" in South Africa?

26.07.17

Privatised War

Company accused of "overbilling" Pentagon's biggest foreign food supplier

Dubai-based company Anham was once accused by SIGIR, the US military spending watchdog, of billing $900 for a circuit breaker.

16.06.17

Fake News

Jeremy Corbyn and the sexbots: One day in #GE2017

A Bureau analysis of Twitter chatter about the election during one five-day period found something rather surprising.

18.04.17

Lobbying’s Hidden Influence

How to make Republican friends and influence people

A mysterious contract between a Turkish organisation and the son of Republican grandee James Baker deepens questions about the country’s attempts to influence US politics and public opinion.

27.02.17

Fake News

The future of 'fake news'?

A map purporting to show crimes by refugees in Germany employs sophisticated methods of information manipulation.

10.10.16

CIA Torture

“Site Violet”: How Lithuania helped run a secret CIA prison

Secret documents obtained by the Bureau confirm the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) set up and ran a “black site” for detention of al Qaeda suspects, say lawyers.

06.10.16

Privatised War

Revealed: The British firms paid $60 billion by the Pentagon under President Obama

Between 2009 and the end of 2015, total spending by the Department of Defense on goods and services from the private sector at large was more than $2.3 trillion.

02.10.16

Fake News

Fake news and false flags

The PR firm's $500 million contract with the Pentagon included making fake insurgent videos which could be used to track the people who watched them.

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