Pakistan has acquired the services of a controversial Canada-based company to help build a nationwide “web monitoring system,” Coda Story can reveal.

Sandvine is expected to provide equipment for monitoring and analyzing all incoming and outgoing internet traffic from Pakistan.

The agreement raises serious concerns about privacy and civil liberties in Pakistan, where government critics have sometimes seen digital retribution from officials and other powerful groups.

According to the agreement — a copy of which was exclusively shared with Coda — the contract is worth $18.5 million and dated December 12, 2018. The “web monitoring system” will use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to monitor communications, measure and record traffic and call data on behalf of the country’s national telecommunications regulator, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA).