5 ms·

Mexican surveillance company Grupo Seguritech watches the U.S. border

80 points by classichasclass 6mo ago

redsocksfan45 6mo ago
[dead]
walletdrainer 6mo ago
[flagged]
- dang 6mo ago
  You can't post like this here, and we ban accounts that do, so please don't. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
Cider9986 6mo ago
>Hey, at least in Mexico surveillance tech people might wake up to their family chopped to pieces. One can hope, anyway. I don't think this is a good thing. The crime is detrimental to innocent people, and although mass surveillance should not be the answer, it can only be fought through democratic processes. I am curious what Mexico should do long term to reduce crime. The U.S. used to have a bigger problem with organized crime, but it has been subdued before mass surveillance was an option.
- ohhman11 6mo ago
  >The crime is detrimental to innocent people, and although mass surveillance should not be the answer, it can only be fought through democratic processes. Mass surveillance is detrimental to innocent people and to democratic processes. Anyone deliberately facilitating that certainly deserves the worst fate imaginable. These are tools tailor-made to destroy democracies, we should treat people behind them like we treat ISIS.
  - pixl97 6mo ago
    Yep once the system is set up, no matter how good its intentions, the government will get a group of bad people who then use said monitoring system to entrench their power.
  - junofan 6mo ago
    The article references “public panic buttons” and how > There is active participation by the citizenry, where they connect their private security devices to the command centers run by the state You don’t really believe anybody using a “public panic button” or hooking up their own alarm system to law enforcement deserves the worst fate imaginable. That’s a little extreme. What are we even trying to accomplish here? It sounds like individuals in parts of Mexico are trying to protect themselves. There has to be some compromise between ideals and reality. If you reflexively tell people “you can’t help the cops for the sake of democracy,” they’re gonna throw out the democracy part and keep the cops part. Maybe a short stint in jail in the case of misconduct, but the worst fate imaginable? Chopped up in a suitcase?
    - ohhman11 6mo ago
      That's not even close to their main product, who cares? You went from "license plate readers, stationary cameras, and panic buttons abound" in the article to "panic buttons", feels a bit dishonest.
  - next_xibalba 6mo ago
    > Anyone deliberately facilitating that certainly deserves the worst fate imaginable. These are tools tailor-made to destroy democracies, we should treat people behind them like we treat ISIS. Just so you know, I and many people like me will automatically align with whoever opposes you due to this rhetoric. Whatever it takes to ensure you and those who agree with you never, ever get any foothold in the discourse, let alone power. You are writing extremist and very dangerous things. It’s vile rhetoric and in a just world would be flagged to oblivion.
    - pesus 6mo ago
- consumer451 6mo ago
  > I am curious what Mexico should do long term to reduce crime. I would imagine that the #1 priority might be to shut down the "Iron River." The Iron River is the limitless supply of firearms from the USA to Mexican cartels. It is very well documented, and yet we rarely hear about it.
  - 15155 6mo ago
    "Iron River" - you're joking, right? These cartels can: - effectuate mass synthesis of illicit substances in commercial laboratories - handle massive intercontinental logistics - build semi-submersible boats - hire and kidnap radio engineers to help with communications and electronic warfare but gee, they just can't figure out how to buy a machine shop and hire or kidnap talent to make 100-year-old firearm designs - that's just too much for them?
    - estearum 6mo ago
      Uhhh why would they do that when they can just buy them for super cheap at industrial scale from the US? And yes the solution to things like organized crime is always just a continuous chipping away and adding friction where you can. Not giving them massive amounts of cheap, high quality firearms seems like a meaningful goal.
      - 15155 6mo ago
        This is a popular idea amongst American liberals who rejoice at any possible means to eliminate/curb/add friction to lawful firearms ownership and manufacturing. Where are they buying firearms in America at an "industrial scale?" An AR-15 receiver can be turned out in tens of minutes on a fast VMC - good luck stopping this.
        consumer451 6mo ago
        https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/firearms-trace-data-mexico-2019-2024 https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/fire... https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-iii-crime-guns-recovered-and-traced-us/download https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-par... https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/firearms-trace-data-mexico-2018-2023 https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/fire... https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-322 https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-322 https://www.gao.gov/video/weapons-recovered-arms-trafficking-mexico https://www.gao.gov/video/weapons-recovered-arms-trafficking...
- fredgrott 6mo ago
  Mexico has a weak Federal gov but more strong local states.... I did not use to be this way, before the revolution it was the opposite. History wise, started changing in the 1930s as far as illegal drug trafficking groups wrestling local gov, state gov, and fed gov away from law and order missions.
- deepsun 6mo ago
  I don't think crime can always be fought through democratic processes. What if the whole country lives on heroin exports (Afghanistan)? Any "processes" are doomed to fail, as populace would vote to feed their families.
  - mschuster91 6mo ago
    > What if the whole country lives on heroin exports (Afghanistan)? Invade and, this time, provide a way for the population to earn a honest living. "Let them eat cake" just doesn't work out.
    - deepsun 6mo ago
      "Provide a way" -- what if it's way too expensive, even for a huge country? And populace just doesn't want it (e. g. it goes against sacred texts). And there are no infrastructure nor institutions to build upon. It's close to impossible. And the populace would see us only as a provider of goods. And morally, why should we provide some other country? Are we the world government? Shouldn't we stop messing with others and keep to our business, as long as they don't mess with us (bomb and export heroin). Why are we suddenly responsible for them? PS: nevertheless, one country (USA) tried to build democracy in Afghanistan, but failed. And only got scoldings for that.
      - beepbooptheory 6mo ago
        Seeing a pure blood neo-con like this out in the wild is weird. It's like watching Mad Men but it's set in 2003.
      - mschuster91 6mo ago
        > "Provide a way" -- what if it's way too expensive, even for a huge country? Afghanistan has a lot of natural resources. > And morally, why should we provide some other country? Are we the world government? Shouldn't we stop messing with others and keep to our business, as long as they don't mess with us (bomb and export heroin). Why are we suddenly responsible for them? Development aid is always a good thing. Soft power is incredibly powerful on the global stage - just look at UN votes. A lot of countries that firmly voted with the Western nations for decades now votes with Russia/China or abstains, corresponding with us scaling back foreign aid and other similar investments. And there's an economic side as well... China used to be a bunch of piss poor farmers, now they're among the world's strongest economies. And well, either we are the ones who decide where the world is going, we are the top dogs - or we have to submit to China, Russia and the likes, and there is no way this is a good way forward. > PS: nevertheless, one country (USA) tried to build democracy in Afghanistan, but failed. And only got scoldings for that. That's because we (I'm German, we were in this mess as well) didn't actually do nation building. Yes, we got rid of the Taliban and we built schools for girls, but that's it. The "army" was to at least 50% only existing on paper, corruption and sexual abuse (bacha bazi, DO NOT google that one if you're not ready for vivid descriptions of child abuse) ran rampant across all of society. We completely and utterly failed in auditing and oversight. And not just of the Afghani side, but our own as well, see Bagram.
- deaddodo 6mo ago
  Crime in Mexico is down, and continues to trend that way. The homicide rate, for instance, is 22% down from 2024 to 2025. Mexico is very much in it's New York mafioso days of the 80s. Still endemic, entrenched, and powerful, but losing ground and slowly legitimizing. The reason it's so slow is more to due with high rates of corruption in the government (local to federal) and justice system and the cultural effect it's had on the general populace.
  - thuridas 6mo ago
    The weapons flow from USA doesn't help. US can afford to have militarized police with armoured cars. But the combination of drugs, poverty and weapons is very dangerous
  - nslsm 6mo ago
    Every time someone mentions crime someone inevitably comes along to mention how according to the completely legitimate crime rates reported by the authorities, crime is disappearing and nothing should be done.
    - xethos 6mo ago
      If public perception was the only metric, and gaming it was an option, why would they have let the number get so high in the first place? They look bad, their boss looks bad, the paperwork for each individual crime begets a massive, impossible to hide conspiracy, and even nations struggle to execute on multi-year plans - individuals aren't going to be better at controlling multiple lower levels to hit each step of their plan, year after year
    - ZeroGravitas 6mo ago
      There's significant debate about exactly why the crime rates are falling around the world. But not about whether it's happening. Which particular expert you listen to might emphasize different things to focus on to enable the trend to continue. Listening to the people who ignore the facts because they find scaring people with lies more effective for their putposes is almost certainly a worse idea.
  - 6mo ago
- lotsofpulp 6mo ago
  > The U.S. used to have a bigger problem with organized crime, but it has been subdued before mass surveillance was an option. I thought it was credit cards and electronic payments that subdued organized crime (or at least moved it into the realm of the white collar, lawyer-facilitated “legal” crimes through official channels), which greatly reduces the violence component.
ufocia 6mo ago
This begs the question, who is paying for it?
- blitzar 6mo ago
  They built a wall and paid mexico for it
foundermodus 6mo ago
Who pays for that?
nickandbro 6mo ago
Their website is whack: https://seguritech.com/en https://seguritech.com/en
- 0x3f 6mo ago
  These people deserve an immediate prison sentence.
KoftaBob 6mo ago
> Mexico’s government was also the first purchaser of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware > Grupo Seguritech was founded in Mexico City in 1995 by father-son duo Shimon and Ariel Picker as a small company selling alarm systems for homes. It's remarkable that even in a country where Jewish people make up no more than 0.05% of the population, they excel in this cybersecurity/surveillance arena. The talented ability of Jewish moms to always know the gossip of the community seems to pass down to their entrepreneurial kids!
slowhadoken 6mo ago
Governments subcontract the private sector for everything from food processing to defense. I’ve heard that Mexico can’t afford to effectively patrol their boarders. It’s only natural for them to turn to a company like this.
diogenes_atx 6mo ago
> A little-known technology firm that has quietly grown into a surveillance powerhouse in Latin America. Over the past three decades, Grupo Seguritech has evolved from a small company selling home alarms into a sprawling network of firms that are deeply involved in projects across the region. Virtually all the technology used by this Mexican company, Grupo Seguritech, is imported from other countries. As a university student, I completed a Master's thesis about export manufacturing industries in Mexico. Then as now, the vast majority of manufacturing exports were (and still are) produced by foreign capital. Today Mexican capital contributes relatively little to the total value of manufactured exports. This is an important consideration: even in Mexican firms like Grupo Seguritech that are operating in other countries, such firms are not really in control of this technology, they are only licensing it from abroad. Foreign capital owns and controls the tech, and foreign capital reaps a substantial share of the profits.

redsocksfan45 6mo ago

[dead]

walletdrainer 6mo ago

[flagged]

dang 6mo ago
You can't post like this here, and we ban accounts that do, so please don't. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Cider9986 6mo ago

>Hey, at least in Mexico surveillance tech people might wake up to their family chopped to pieces. One can hope, anyway. I don't think this is a good thing. The crime is detrimental to innocent people, and although mass surveillance should not be the answer, it can only be fought through democratic processes. I am curious what Mexico should do long term to reduce crime. The U.S. used to have a bigger problem with organized crime, but it has been subdued before mass surveillance was an option.

ohhman11 6mo ago
>The crime is detrimental to innocent people, and although mass surveillance should not be the answer, it can only be fought through democratic processes. Mass surveillance is detrimental to innocent people and to democratic processes. Anyone deliberately facilitating that certainly deserves the worst fate imaginable. These are tools tailor-made to destroy democracies, we should treat people behind them like we treat ISIS.
- pixl97 6mo ago
  Yep once the system is set up, no matter how good its intentions, the government will get a group of bad people who then use said monitoring system to entrench their power.
- junofan 6mo ago
  The article references “public panic buttons” and how > There is active participation by the citizenry, where they connect their private security devices to the command centers run by the state You don’t really believe anybody using a “public panic button” or hooking up their own alarm system to law enforcement deserves the worst fate imaginable. That’s a little extreme. What are we even trying to accomplish here? It sounds like individuals in parts of Mexico are trying to protect themselves. There has to be some compromise between ideals and reality. If you reflexively tell people “you can’t help the cops for the sake of democracy,” they’re gonna throw out the democracy part and keep the cops part. Maybe a short stint in jail in the case of misconduct, but the worst fate imaginable? Chopped up in a suitcase?
  - ohhman11 6mo ago
    That's not even close to their main product, who cares? You went from "license plate readers, stationary cameras, and panic buttons abound" in the article to "panic buttons", feels a bit dishonest.
- next_xibalba 6mo ago
  > Anyone deliberately facilitating that certainly deserves the worst fate imaginable. These are tools tailor-made to destroy democracies, we should treat people behind them like we treat ISIS. Just so you know, I and many people like me will automatically align with whoever opposes you due to this rhetoric. Whatever it takes to ensure you and those who agree with you never, ever get any foothold in the discourse, let alone power. You are writing extremist and very dangerous things. It’s vile rhetoric and in a just world would be flagged to oblivion.
  - pesus 6mo ago
consumer451 6mo ago
> I am curious what Mexico should do long term to reduce crime. I would imagine that the #1 priority might be to shut down the "Iron River." The Iron River is the limitless supply of firearms from the USA to Mexican cartels. It is very well documented, and yet we rarely hear about it.
- 15155 6mo ago
  "Iron River" - you're joking, right? These cartels can: - effectuate mass synthesis of illicit substances in commercial laboratories - handle massive intercontinental logistics - build semi-submersible boats - hire and kidnap radio engineers to help with communications and electronic warfare but gee, they just can't figure out how to buy a machine shop and hire or kidnap talent to make 100-year-old firearm designs - that's just too much for them?
  - estearum 6mo ago
    Uhhh why would they do that when they can just buy them for super cheap at industrial scale from the US? And yes the solution to things like organized crime is always just a continuous chipping away and adding friction where you can. Not giving them massive amounts of cheap, high quality firearms seems like a meaningful goal.
    - 15155 6mo ago
      This is a popular idea amongst American liberals who rejoice at any possible means to eliminate/curb/add friction to lawful firearms ownership and manufacturing. Where are they buying firearms in America at an "industrial scale?" An AR-15 receiver can be turned out in tens of minutes on a fast VMC - good luck stopping this.
      - consumer451 6mo ago
        https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/firearms-trace-data-mexico-2019-2024 https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/fire... https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-iii-crime-guns-recovered-and-traced-us/download https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-par... https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/firearms-trace-data-mexico-2018-2023 https://www.atf.gov/firearms/report/firearms-trace-data/fire... https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-322 https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-322 https://www.gao.gov/video/weapons-recovered-arms-trafficking-mexico https://www.gao.gov/video/weapons-recovered-arms-trafficking...
fredgrott 6mo ago
Mexico has a weak Federal gov but more strong local states.... I did not use to be this way, before the revolution it was the opposite. History wise, started changing in the 1930s as far as illegal drug trafficking groups wrestling local gov, state gov, and fed gov away from law and order missions.
deepsun 6mo ago
I don't think crime can always be fought through democratic processes. What if the whole country lives on heroin exports (Afghanistan)? Any "processes" are doomed to fail, as populace would vote to feed their families.
- mschuster91 6mo ago
  > What if the whole country lives on heroin exports (Afghanistan)? Invade and, this time, provide a way for the population to earn a honest living. "Let them eat cake" just doesn't work out.
  - deepsun 6mo ago
    "Provide a way" -- what if it's way too expensive, even for a huge country? And populace just doesn't want it (e. g. it goes against sacred texts). And there are no infrastructure nor institutions to build upon. It's close to impossible. And the populace would see us only as a provider of goods. And morally, why should we provide some other country? Are we the world government? Shouldn't we stop messing with others and keep to our business, as long as they don't mess with us (bomb and export heroin). Why are we suddenly responsible for them? PS: nevertheless, one country (USA) tried to build democracy in Afghanistan, but failed. And only got scoldings for that.
    - beepbooptheory 6mo ago
      Seeing a pure blood neo-con like this out in the wild is weird. It's like watching Mad Men but it's set in 2003.
    - mschuster91 6mo ago
      > "Provide a way" -- what if it's way too expensive, even for a huge country? Afghanistan has a lot of natural resources. > And morally, why should we provide some other country? Are we the world government? Shouldn't we stop messing with others and keep to our business, as long as they don't mess with us (bomb and export heroin). Why are we suddenly responsible for them? Development aid is always a good thing. Soft power is incredibly powerful on the global stage - just look at UN votes. A lot of countries that firmly voted with the Western nations for decades now votes with Russia/China or abstains, corresponding with us scaling back foreign aid and other similar investments. And there's an economic side as well... China used to be a bunch of piss poor farmers, now they're among the world's strongest economies. And well, either we are the ones who decide where the world is going, we are the top dogs - or we have to submit to China, Russia and the likes, and there is no way this is a good way forward. > PS: nevertheless, one country (USA) tried to build democracy in Afghanistan, but failed. And only got scoldings for that. That's because we (I'm German, we were in this mess as well) didn't actually do nation building. Yes, we got rid of the Taliban and we built schools for girls, but that's it. The "army" was to at least 50% only existing on paper, corruption and sexual abuse (bacha bazi, DO NOT google that one if you're not ready for vivid descriptions of child abuse) ran rampant across all of society. We completely and utterly failed in auditing and oversight. And not just of the Afghani side, but our own as well, see Bagram.
deaddodo 6mo ago
Crime in Mexico is down, and continues to trend that way. The homicide rate, for instance, is 22% down from 2024 to 2025. Mexico is very much in it's New York mafioso days of the 80s. Still endemic, entrenched, and powerful, but losing ground and slowly legitimizing. The reason it's so slow is more to due with high rates of corruption in the government (local to federal) and justice system and the cultural effect it's had on the general populace.
- thuridas 6mo ago
  The weapons flow from USA doesn't help. US can afford to have militarized police with armoured cars. But the combination of drugs, poverty and weapons is very dangerous
- nslsm 6mo ago
  Every time someone mentions crime someone inevitably comes along to mention how according to the completely legitimate crime rates reported by the authorities, crime is disappearing and nothing should be done.
  - xethos 6mo ago
    If public perception was the only metric, and gaming it was an option, why would they have let the number get so high in the first place? They look bad, their boss looks bad, the paperwork for each individual crime begets a massive, impossible to hide conspiracy, and even nations struggle to execute on multi-year plans - individuals aren't going to be better at controlling multiple lower levels to hit each step of their plan, year after year
  - ZeroGravitas 6mo ago
    There's significant debate about exactly why the crime rates are falling around the world. But not about whether it's happening. Which particular expert you listen to might emphasize different things to focus on to enable the trend to continue. Listening to the people who ignore the facts because they find scaring people with lies more effective for their putposes is almost certainly a worse idea.
- 6mo ago
lotsofpulp 6mo ago
> The U.S. used to have a bigger problem with organized crime, but it has been subdued before mass surveillance was an option. I thought it was credit cards and electronic payments that subdued organized crime (or at least moved it into the realm of the white collar, lawyer-facilitated “legal” crimes through official channels), which greatly reduces the violence component.

ufocia 6mo ago

This begs the question, who is paying for it?

blitzar 6mo ago
They built a wall and paid mexico for it

foundermodus 6mo ago

Who pays for that?

nickandbro 6mo ago

Their website is whack: https://seguritech.com/en https://seguritech.com/en

0x3f 6mo ago
These people deserve an immediate prison sentence.

KoftaBob 6mo ago

> Mexico’s government was also the first purchaser of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware > Grupo Seguritech was founded in Mexico City in 1995 by father-son duo Shimon and Ariel Picker as a small company selling alarm systems for homes. It's remarkable that even in a country where Jewish people make up no more than 0.05% of the population, they excel in this cybersecurity/surveillance arena. The talented ability of Jewish moms to always know the gossip of the community seems to pass down to their entrepreneurial kids!

slowhadoken 6mo ago

Governments subcontract the private sector for everything from food processing to defense. I’ve heard that Mexico can’t afford to effectively patrol their boarders. It’s only natural for them to turn to a company like this.

diogenes_atx 6mo ago

> A little-known technology firm that has quietly grown into a surveillance powerhouse in Latin America. Over the past three decades, Grupo Seguritech has evolved from a small company selling home alarms into a sprawling network of firms that are deeply involved in projects across the region. Virtually all the technology used by this Mexican company, Grupo Seguritech, is imported from other countries. As a university student, I completed a Master's thesis about export manufacturing industries in Mexico. Then as now, the vast majority of manufacturing exports were (and still are) produced by foreign capital. Today Mexican capital contributes relatively little to the total value of manufactured exports. This is an important consideration: even in Mexican firms like Grupo Seguritech that are operating in other countries, such firms are not really in control of this technology, they are only licensing it from abroad. Foreign capital owns and controls the tech, and foreign capital reaps a substantial share of the profits.