Chinese technology capable of mass surveillance 'installed' by Myanmar internet company funded by UK — Finance Uncovered 5/22/25, 11:56 AM But rather than divest its $20 million stake, CDC invested a further $3 million the following month. Founded by three US citizens and led by Myanmar-born MIT doctorate Godfrey Tan, Frontiir’s business grew swiftly after a previous military regime ceded power to a quasicivilian administration that was succeeded in 2015 by the first elected civilian government in a generation. But concerns were already growing that Myanmar’s military was spying on the country’s rapidly expanding pool of internet users. In 2018, the UK and European Union imposed sanctions barring their companies from helping Myanmar authorities to surveil the internet, fearing the military was using this information to carry out atrocities against Rohingya Muslims. These sanctions did not stop Norway, Denmark or the UK from investing in Frontiir the following year — or from increasing their stakes even as the company devised a proposal to build a system to listen in on its users online. Lawful interception In November 2020 — just a few months after the BII increased its investment in Frontiir — Myanmar Net drafted a “proposal[6]” for a so-called “lawful interception” system that would allow law enforcement agencies to track its users’ locations, read their messages and emails, and the content of any audio or visual files they exchanged (see the full document under this article). At the request of authorities, the network proposed creating “a dedicated line connection to transfer intercept related information and content of communication,” according to a copy of the plan leaked to reporters. As long as they had a warrant, Myanmar Net said it would provide law enforcement with intercepted data for up to two weeks at a time. “This document specifies the details and protocols of the three types of Handover Interfaces … which Myanmar Net … humbly proposes to use to cooperate with the Law Enforcement Agencies in conducting Lawful Intercept operations,” said the document. After initially denying involvement in any interception system, Frontiir acknowledged to FU and MN that it had submitted the proposal to authorities, which at that time were run by the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. But a spokesperson said the document “merely contains ideas about [lawful interception] based on publicly available information”. Such systems are used by law enforcement agencies to catch criminals all over the world, but under international rules they are only meant to be deployed after a legal vetting process to prevent abuse. In the proposal, Myanmar Net highlighted the sensitivity of interception requests, saying each required a valid warrant or the company could face “legal ramifications”. “Lawful Intercept is a powerful tool and Myanmar Net is committed to comply with the international standards,” said the document, dated November 15, 2020. The network must “exercise the highest degree of care and observe extraordinary diligence to ensure controls are in place to curtail abuses and to protect the privacy rights of individual citizens,” it added. But just a few weeks after Myanmar Net submitted its proposal, Telenor – one of the largest https://www.financeuncovered.org/stories/british-norwegian-and-danis…litary-run-myanmar-which-hosts-notorious-chinese-surveillance-system Page 6 of 12