{{Short description|Organisation}} {{Intelligence}}A '''private intelligence agency''' ('''PIA''') is a private sector (non-governmental) or quasi-non-government organization devoted to the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information, through the evaluation of public sources (OSINT or Open Source INTelligence) and cooperation with other institutions.<ref name="Private Intelligence Companies">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Michael |title=Private Intelligence Companies |date=2008-06-01 |url=http://www.michaelsmithwriter.com/pdf/intelligence_companies.pdf |access-date=2011-09-28 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205143528/http://michaelsmithwriter.com/pdf/intelligence_companies.pdf |archive-date=2009-02-05 }}</ref> Some private intelligence agencies obtain information deceptively or through on-the-ground activities for clients.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/black-cube-nso-citizen-lab-intelligence.html|title=The Case of the Bumbling Spy: A Watchdog Group Gets Him on Camera|last1=Bergman|first1=Ronen|date=2019-01-28|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-11|last2=Shane|first2=Scott|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-a-private-israeli-intelligence-firm-spied-on-pro-palestinian-activists-in-the-us|title=How a Private Israeli Intelligence Firm Spied on Pro-Palestinian Activists in the U.S.|last=Entous|first=Adam|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2019-02-28|access-date=2019-06-11|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/23/17151916/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-diagram|title=The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, explained with a simple diagram|last=Chang|first=Alvin|date=2018-03-23|website=Vox|access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/report-weinstein-hired-ex-mossad-to-track-his-accusers-1.5463626|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204075213/https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/report-weinstein-hired-ex-mossad-to-track-his-accusers-1.5463626|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 4, 2018|title=Harvey Weinstein Hired ex-Mossad Agents to Track Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault|date=2017-11-07|work=Haaretz|access-date=2019-06-11|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/business/apnewsbreak-undercover-agents-target-cybersecurity-watchdog-2/|title=APNewsBreak: Undercover agents target cybersecurity watchdog|date=2019-01-25|website=The Seattle Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref>
Private agencies have made their services available to governments as well as individual consumers; they have also sold their services to large corporations with an interest or investment in the category (e.g. crime, disease, corruption, etc.) or the region (e.g. Middle East, Vietnam, Prague, etc.) or to investigate perceived threats such as environmental groups or human rights groups.<ref>{{Citation|last=Keefe|first=Patrick R.|chapter=Privatized Spying: The Emerging Intelligence Industry|date=2010-03-12|url=http://oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195375886.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195375886-e-0018|pages=295–309|editor-last=Johnson|editor-first=Loch K.|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195375886.003.0018|isbn=9780195375886|access-date=2019-06-19|title=The Oxford Handbook of National Security Intelligence|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Ripley|first=Amanda|title=Rent A-Spook |date=31 July 1998|url=http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/15527/rent-a-spook |access-date=4 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news.com.au/world/britain-is-concerned-about-australias-links-to-hakluyt-security-firm-created-by-former-mi6-agents/news-story/5d6a3c7ccbd5cd9992379aeecaa5e3dc|title=UK worry over Aussie spy link|date=2016-01-18|website=NewsComAu|access-date=2019-06-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-10-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israels-cyber-spy-industry-aids-dictators-hunt-dissidents-and-gays/0000017f-e9a9-dc91-a17f-fdadde240000|title=Revealed: Israel's Cyber-spy Industry Helps World Dictators Hunt Dissidents and Gays|last1=Shezaf|first1=Hagar|date=2018-10-20|work=Haaretz|access-date=2019-06-19|last2=Jacobson|first2=Jonathan|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Britovšek|first1=Jaroš|last2=Tičar|first2=Bojan|last3=Sotlar|first3=Andrej|date=2018-04-01|title=Private intelligence in the Republic of Slovenia: theoretical, legal, and practical aspects|journal=Security Journal|language=en|volume=31|issue=2|pages=410–427|doi=10.1057/s41284-017-0107-0|s2cid=157343997|issn=1743-4645}}</ref>
Some private intelligence agencies use online perception management,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-cambridge-analytica-explained.html|title=Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: What You Need to Know as Fallout Widens|last=Granville|first=Kevin|date=2018-03-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-11|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> social media influencing/manipulation campaigns, strategic disinformation<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/18/private-mossad-for-hire|title=Private Mossad for Hire|last1=Entous|first1=Adam|date=2019-02-11|access-date=2019-06-11|last2=Farrow|first2=Ronan|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref> (such as fake news production/propaganda production<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/rick-gates-psy-group-trump.html|title=Rick Gates Sought Online Manipulation Plans From Israeli Intelligence Firm for Trump Campaign|last1=Mazzetti|first1=Mark|date=2018-10-08|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-11|last2=Bergman|first2=Ronen|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|last3=Kirkpatrick|first3=David D.|last4=Haberman|first4=Maggie}}</ref>), opposition research and political campaigns using social media and artificial intelligence such as Psy-Group, Cambridge Analytica and Black Cube.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2019/06/11/facebook-rules-project-veritas/|title=Right-Wing Sting Group Project Veritas Is Breaking Facebook's "Authentic Behavior" Rule. Now What?|last=Biddle|first=Sam|date=2019-06-11|website=The Intercept|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/18/private-mossad-for-hire|title=Private Mossad for Hire|last=Farrow|first=Adam EntousRonan|website=www.newyorker.com|date=11 February 2019|access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump|title='I made Steve Bannon's psychological warfare tool': meet the data war whistleblower|last=Cadwalladr|first=Carole|date=2018-03-18|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-06-11|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>Samantha Bradshaw & Philip N. Howard, “Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation.” Samuel Woolley and Philip N. Howard, Eds. Working Paper 2017.12. Oxford, UK: Project on Computational Propaganda. comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk. 37 pp. http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/politicalbots/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/07/Troops-Trolls-and-Troublemakers.pdf</ref><ref>Gabrielle Lim. "Disinformation Annotated Bibliography." Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, May 2019. https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Disinformation-Bibliography.pdf</ref> The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab described the activity of Archimedes Group as practicing "information warfare".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/tech/facebook-takedown-israeli-company/index.html|title=Facebook says Israeli company used fake accounts to target African elections|website=CNN|date=16 May 2019|access-date=2019-06-12}}</ref> Former anti-corruption prosecutor Aaron Sayne said private intelligence is "an industry that's largely undocumented and has very flexible ethical norms" as agencies collect and use sensitive information "for one purpose on day one and some completely contradictory purpose on day two".<ref>{{cite news |first1=Tom |last1=Burgis | title=Dossier affair shines light on shadowy private intelligence work: In the corporate sphere paymasters sometimes have ulterior motives |date=14 January 2017 |work=Financial Times |page=3}}</ref>
The private intelligence industry has boomed due to shifts in how the U.S. government is conducting espionage in the war on terror. Some $56 billion (USD) or 70% of the $80 billion national intelligence budget of the United States was in 2013 earmarked for the private sector according to ''The New York Times''{{'}} Tim Shorrock. Functions previously performed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), and other intelligence agencies are now outsourced to private intelligence corporations.<ref>{{cite web|last=Abbot|first=Sebastian|title=The Outsourcing of U.S. Intelligence Analysis|url=http://newsinitiative.org/story/2006/07/28/the_outsourcing_of_u_s_intelligence|work=News21 Project|access-date=28 February 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208055727/http://newsinitiative.org/story/2006/07/28/the_outsourcing_of_u_s_intelligence|archive-date=8 February 2012}}</ref>
==List of private intelligence companies== {{Div col}} <!-- DO NOT ADD ANY COMPANIES HERE WITHOUT A LINKED ARTICLE OR THEY WILL BE REMOVED --> *'''Active''' **AEGIS (UK) **AggregateIQ (Canada) **Archimedes Group (Israel) **BAE Systems (UK) **Black Cube (Israel & UK) **Booz Allen Hamilton (US) **Control Risks Group (UK) **Emerdata Limited (UK) **Fusion GPS (US) **Groupe GEOS (France) **Hakluyt & Company (UK) **Janes Information Services (UK) **Kroll Inc. (US) **NSO Group (Israel) **Oxford Analytica (UK) **Palantir Technologies (US) **Pinkerton National Detective Agency (US) **Smith Brandon International, Inc. (US) **Stratfor (US) *'''Inactive''' **Appin (India) **Cambridge Analytica (UK) **Psy-Group (Israel) **SCL Group (UK) **Western Goals Foundation (US) {{div col end}} <!-- DO NOT ADD ANY COMPANIES HERE WITHOUT A LINKED ARTICLE, OR RELIABLE SOURCE(S) ATTACHED, OR THEY WILL BE REMOVED -->
==See also== {{Div col}} *Private military company *Private security company *Private investigator *Defense contractor *Business intelligence *Competitive intelligence *Open-source intelligence *Security sector governance and reform *Think tank *Labor spying in the United States {{div col end}}
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
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Category:Private intelligence agencies