A German tech company is selling the ability to track “political opponents.” An Italian company promises to remotely seize control of smartphones and photograph their owners. A U.S. company allows security services to “see what they [the targets]see.” A South African company can store recordings of billions of phone calls, forever.

Welcome to the new covert world of surveillance contractors. Shining a light on this $5 billion (and growing) industry, Wikileakstoday released “Spy Files”: hundreds of secret sales brochures. The companies involved hand this  promotional material only to key contacts — often government agencies and police forces — at trade shows that are closed to the public and the press.