When Egyptian activist Basem Fathi raided the headquarters of the state security agency in Cairo after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, he was shocked to find files describing his love life and trips to the beach. Others found transcripts of calls and even lists of companies where they had applied for jobs.
The young dissidents had taken part in an election-monitoring programme funded by the pro-democracy organization Freedom House, which had recommended activists and bloggers use internet phone service Skype to avoid police interception and harassment. Sherif Mansour, Senior Programme Manager at Freedom House, was taken by surprise. ‘When they were arresting bloggers, they were torturing them to get their passwords out of them. So we were under the impression that they didn’t have this information.’1
