An app to help in the fight against illicit trade

Carlos Moreira is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of WISeKey and is the Vice-Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade.
Illicit trade is a major contributor to discrepancies in wealth between the developing and developed world, fuels devastating conflicts and undermines the legitimacy of several fragile states. In effect, illicit trade is the conduit that supports destabilizing and dangerous activity in nearly every sphere of the global economy.
From the illegal export of protected commodities to the use of supply lines by terrorist groups and transnational criminal networks, illicit trade hinders the fundamental building blocks of development, democracy, human rights and rule of law. It supports corrupt practices among government officials and private citizens alike. The value of illicit trade globally rivals the individual GDP of most members of the G8.
To enhance awareness of the issue and respond to these challenges, the Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade has developed a global social crowdsourcing platform to collect information through consumer involvement and reporting of illicit traded goods. The platform is accessed through smartphone platforms, enabling the collection of rich media, capturing photographs of traded goods, compiling consumer reports on their authenticity, price and quality, as well as accurate geo-location and vendor/store information.
The first release of the application called “Should I Buy It?” is available via the iTunes app store. In addition to distributing the information to other app holders, anyone with public access to the Internet can monitor reports through the public Facebook page of the “Should I Buy It?” platform. Future releases of the platform will gradually include feedback from agencies fighting illicit trade, with flash news reports and contributions from international customs and other agencies.
Join shoppers around the world and help authenticate and validate the goods that you are purchasing, before you buy it, with the “Should I Buy It?” mobile app from WISeKey.
The Global Agenda Council will continue to brainstorm on how to raise awareness on illicit trade during the Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai. If you have any ideas on how we can raise awareness on the multidimensional issue of illicit trade, let us know through the comments section below.
Image: A customs officer displays a counterfeit branded mobile phone at a rubbish dump site. REUTERS/Stringer Shanghai
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