The United States Adds Sandvine to the Entity List for Enabling Human Rights Abuses

This week, the Department of Commerce added Sandvine Incorporated, based in Canada, to its Entity List, which will impose license requirements for exports, reexports, and transfers of U.S. technologies to this company.  Sandvine supplies deep packet inspection tools, which have been used in mass web-monitoring and censorship to block news as well as in targeting political actors and human rights activists.  This technology has been misused to inject commercial spyware into the devices of perceived critics and dissidents. 

This announcement supports the United States’ comprehensive approach to countering the misuse of surveillance and other technologies.  The action builds on previously announced Department of Commerce-imposed export controls on commercial spyware entities whose products have been misused to enable human rights abuses. 

This latest action sends a strong message that the United States will promote accountability for the misuse of surveillance technologies and those who furnish these technologies, facilitating human rights abuses and targeting and silencing of journalists, activists, and perceived critics.  

The United States appreciates Canada’s partnership in the Export Control and Human Rights Initiative (ECHRI) to counter the misuse of goods and technology to commit serious human rights violations by using export controls in pursuit of national security interests.