This post should be required reading for anyone in West working on this technology. It's one thing to spend your life working on something of dubious benefit to humanity, it's entirely another to be directly, actively working against freedom and democracy globally.
I know of one company that used to (maybe still do?) recruit aggressively at my university, who shall remain nameless for the sake of civility, and cannot understand the students that chose to go work there despite knowing full well the business they're in.
Sadly, money motivates, and I can understand that. I still think that way about people who go to work on guided missiles and so forth. Perhaps it's a stretched simile, but I think it's like selling crack to kids to feed your family.
I don't think it's that civil to omit the company's name, it's more like letting them win. I find it interesting and useful to learn which companies are behind shady activities, as done in the article:
> The equipment, produced by Alcatel, Siemens, Cisco and others is then sold to Iran, Myanmar, Belarus and other repressive regimes, as part of normal network operator procurements.
To be frank I listed those just as examples: no idea which of those have their equipment installed at Beltelecom, but they are commonly used in similar setups. There is little point in being accusatory: the surveillance features were developed as a part of legal compliance to their respective jurisdictions, then spread worldwide.
IMHO it is best to treat corporations as a force of nature, which however can be loosely directed by legislation. People staffing them might be all fine as individuals, but the requirements of market and governments can produce socially unwelcome outcomes.
I agree that not naming names is a bad idea. Strangely, this isn't the first time I've seen people avoid it on HN though. It doesn't sound like fear of reprisal in this instance, so what is the motivation?
I know of one company that used to (maybe still do?) recruit aggressively at my university, who shall remain nameless for the sake of civility, and cannot understand the students that chose to go work there despite knowing full well the business they're in.