Nokia Siemens Networks has been getting a lot of heat for selling Iran hardware and software that enables the monitoring of people’s conversations. This type of technology is mandatory in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, but many don’t know that, so when they heard what NSN was doing … they rightly flipped out. One guy even sued the company because his father was put in jail and was allegedly (read: probably) tortured because of his political views. In a radical move that slipped below our radar until just a few minutes ago, NSN issued a statement saying that they’re restricting their business activities in the country.
Citing credible reports from outside sources and a meeting with Iranian human rights lawyer Dr. Shirin Ebadi, NSN has said that they stopped all work at their monitoring centers in Iran in as early as 2009, and that the company even sold off their monitoring center division. NSN has also said that before they even conducted business in Iran they should have understood the political landscape a little better. That’s code for “yo dawg, we were desperate back then, and we’re sorry that we got a few of your peeps killed”.
All kidding aside, it’s foolish to blame a company for the things people do with the technology they sell. Car makers shouldn’t get in trouble every time someone dies in a car accident, but they should work their best to make cars as safe as possible. Nokia Siemens Networks should have understood what they were getting themselves into, and they probably did, but decided to risk it and just go ahead and deploy their resources which were then obviously abused. It’s a high profile international incident, but I bet things like this happen all the time, everywhere, and with even larger companies, and they don’t get caught, so there’s no use in walking around all day scared for your life.
Because that’s how the terrorists win, am I right?