404 — Meet the private companies that sell spy tech to the NSA and Sudan

Author of The Puzzle Palace, Bamford is one of only a handful of journalists in the world who truly has a grasp of how the NSA is violating our privacy rights. Definitely worth a listen. He covers exactly the issues that I explore in my latest thriller, 4o4 - A John Decker Thriller, about the surveillance state, recently listed as a Top Ten Amazon Bestseller in Technothrillers. For more on this story, visit NPR.

Meet the private companies that sell spy tech to the NSA and Sudan 

BY P. J. TOBIA

The multi-billion dollar private surveillance industry does some of the U.S. government’s most critical electronic snooping. From “deep packet inspection” — that includes tracking and filtering emails — to phone taps, private contractors play a key role for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Besides the U.S. government, some of these companies count the world’s worst human rights violators as clients, according to privacy advocates.

This week on Shortwave, we speak with James Bamford, a writer and documentary film producer who specializes in stories about mass surveillance.