Sandvine, a Waterloo-headquartered firm, has reportedly signed a deal with state-controlled Pakistan Telecommunication Company for a “web monitoring system” that tracks communications, call data and traffic. The national telecom authority—identified as the technology’s user in the US$18.5-million contract dated December 2018—has acknowledged the program. Sandvine did not respond to The Logic’s request for comment. (Coda Story)

Talking point: A 2010 law requires Pakistani carriers to have traffic monitoring and recording systems in place, and existing rules force them to allow security agencies’ intercepts as a condition of their licences, according to watchdog Privacy International. In 2012, Sandvine said it would not bid for a Pakistani government internet-filtering project, following a petition from Bolo Bhi, a local civil society group. But in July 2017, the $562-million deal saw the firm merge with Procera Networks, a U.S. company that had sold technology to major Turkish carrier Türk Telekom over employee worries it would be used for government surveillance. In March 2018, the University of Toronto’s CitizenLab said such a product was being used within Türk Telekom’s network to spy on people in Turkey, Egypt and Syria. Sandvine called the report “technically inaccurate and intentionally misleading.” It is the same product the company has now sold to Pakistan.