<\/ins> <\/div>\nIn September 2023, Circles received approval from Bulgaria\u2019s government to ship a system for intercepting voice calls to Morocco\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, the General Director for Territorial Surveillance, according to the records. In Azerbaijan, the company agreed to send the country\u2019s foreign intelligence service a system that could retrieve location information for mobile subscribers.<\/p>\n
It also made sales to three agencies in the United Arab Emirates, including a spy agency identified in a document dated from 2019 as operating from the Aldar headquarters building in Abu Dhabi. The Aldar building has long been associated with real estate and investment firms, but it has not previously been linked publicly to a spy agency.<\/p>\n
Government representatives in the UAE, Morocco and Azerbaijan did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Circles doesn\u2019t appear to sell spyware that can be used to hack into individual phones. Instead, its technology is designed to eavesdrop on communications and track phones by intercepting data as it is traveling across telecommunication networks.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch previously said in a report that at least six EU member states \u2014 including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland and Poland \u2014 had sold surveillance technologies to customers in countries with documented histories of human rights violations, including repression of activists and journalists. The organization said its findings showed the EU\u2019s regulations have \u201cfailed to prevent dangerous surveillance technologies getting into the hands of those with track records of using them to violate rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive branch, said in a statement at the time that it \u201cattaches great importance to the issue of cyber-surveillance items, which is why the EU has significantly strengthened export controls for such items.\u201d Export controls, which are enforced by member states, need to be regularly updated to \u201cadjust to evolving security risks and threats,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Sophie in \u2018t Veld, a Dutch politician who led an inquiry into surveillance abuses while a member of the European Parliament, said in an interview that the trade in the technology \u2013 and the laws regulating it \u2013 were \u201ccompletely wild west.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have rules on paper, but they have the status of a beer coaster,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Angel Garcia\/Bloomberg<\/em><\/p>\nRelated:<\/strong><\/p>\nCopyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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