Fears that software similar to that which government wants to use in Britain is being sold to monitor dissidents abroad. […]
It is the responsibility of manufacturers to ensure their technology is not used to perpetrate human rights abuses. But there are now calls for them to be subject to stringent export controls requiring a licence to sell abroad.
Privacy International also argues that, in order to prevent dangerous technologies reaching authoritarian regimes through middlemen, there is a need for “end-use” controls that would make it illegal for companies to provide their products when they know or suspect they will be used in human rights abuses.
In a letter to Privacy International, Downing Street said the government was “actively looking at this issue” and was working within the EU to introduce new controls on surveillance.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/07/surveillance-technology-repressive-regimes