monitoring of users’ interactions on various applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Mail, and Skype.33 Given that Myanmar was subject to U.S. Sanctions,34, it is concerning that as a US-based company, Blue Coat, were allowed to sell their products to the government. 26. There have also been reports of internet service providers ('ISPs') in Myanmar acquiring censorship equipment and hardware from the Chinese subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, a Franco-America company. Although the company denied this claim following a letter it received from RSF and Sherpa Association in March 2010, further investigation revealed that a spokesman for Hanthawaddy, a state-controlled ISP, confirmed in 2008 that the Alcatel’s Chinese subsidiary did indeed provide a website filtering and surveillance system.35 27. Whilst such tools can be used for legitimate aims, such as controlling bandwidth costs, they also have the functionality to permit filtering, censorship, and surveillance, also given the poor human rights record of the government of Myanmar and the lack of legal framework in place to ensure the protection of the rights to privacy and freedom of expression of its citizens, the presence of such technologies is of extreme concern. Lack of transparency of agencies conducting surveillance 28. In 2002, the intelligence apparatus of Myanmar was re-structured into the Office of Chief of Military Intelligence (OCMI). The National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI), and the think tank Office of Strategic Studies (OSS) became sub-divisions of the OCMI. The NIB, which included the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI) and Special Branch (SB) dealing with political, economic and criminal matters, was dismantled in 2004,36 but it is unclear which agency took over its mandate. In the last decades, there have been numerous reports of corruption in the OCMI leading to power struggles internally but also with other agencies.37 33 Blue Coat, Applications that Blue Coat PacketShaper Classifies and Controls. Available at: http://www.bluecoat.com/sites/default/files/documents/files/PacketShaper_Application_List.c.pdf 34 35 36 37 U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Burma Sanction Program. Available at: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/burma.pdf Reporters without Borders, Internet Enemies: Burma, 11 March 2011. Available at: http://en.rsf.org/burma-burma-11-03-2011,39754.html Promulgation of Law Repealing National Intelligence Bureau Law and Dissolution of the National Intelligence Bureau, 22 October 2004. Available at: http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs15/2004SPDC_Law2004-07-Law_Repealing_National_Intelligence_Bureau_Law-en.pdf Bahroo, L., A Family at War: Myanmar's Power Struggles and Purge, Security Research Review, Volume 13. Available at: http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/SRR/Volume13/bahroo.html#9