Activists call out Great Firewall tech partners

The EFF has named seven tech firms it believes are collaborating with Chinese authorities

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pressing seven major technology companies to stop working on China's web monitoring and censorship systems.

The privacy group said that Cisco, Nortel, Oracle, Motorola, EMC, Sybase and L-1 Industry Solutions are all believed to be providing hardware, software and support for national and local authorities in China.

Each company was called on to fully disclose its involvement with the Chinese government, and examine ways in which products could be adjusted to prevent abuse by authorities.

The EFF admitted that the named companies are likely to be just a few of many working with the Chinese authorities to censor and block information on the web.

"The question of which companies have assisted in Chinese surveillance is just a small piece of a very large puzzle, and we are quite confident that there are more than just these seven. And obviously many countries other than China are engaged in internet surveillance," wrote EFF international outreach co-ordinator Danny O'Brien in a blog post.

The EFF's move for greater openness comes during a period of heightened tension between China and US businesses.

A recent flap over search censorship and alleged malware attacks caused Google to threaten to pull its business in China, while Microsoft has been put on the defensive over its business dealings in the country.