Privacy International will sue the U.K. government if it doesn’t...

taken concrete steps to stop technologies that allow dictators to enter people’s mobile phones and computers, commandeer cameras and microphones for surveillance, and monitor email, Skype and voice activity. Text messages and call records retrieved that way have been presented to victims during torturous interrogations, PI said. The use of British technologies by despots in the developing world has been “common knowledge since April 2011,” when The Guardian reported that Egyptian dissidents had found a proposal from a U.K. company in the ransacked headquarters of former President Hosni Mubarak’s secret police service, it said. The product pitched was the FinFisher suite, a range of malicious software that infects computers or mobile devices using a fake update from what seems to be a legitimate source such as Adobe Flash or iTunes, it said. Under the Export Control Act 2002, the government has the power to restrict exports of goods or technical assistance capable of facilitating internal repression or human rights breaches, it said. PI gave officials 21 days to respond, but said if they fail to act by that deadline, it will seek judicial review and possibly an urgent injunction to stop British companies from maintaining or updating systems already sold to despotic regimes, or from making any new exports. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it’s reviewing the letter and will consider its response. It declined to comment further because the matter may be subject to legal action.