在 Egypt 的案例中，Bloomberg 所见文件指出，Sandvine 建置了可记录大量公民上网活动的 IPFIX 资料库；2020 年 3 月另有一笔 40 万美元软体交易，用于记录经由 WhatsApp 等应用进行的网路通话资讯。员工与研究者称，系统虽无法读取加密讯息内容，却可撷取谁与谁通讯、何时通讯、浏览哪些网站、使用哪些应用等中继资料。类似模式亦出现在其他国家：2019 至 2022 年间，Sandvine 向 Eritrea 部会出售设备；在 Algeria，向国防部与邮政通讯部出售逾 2,000 万美元设备，其中一套可储存超过 1,000 万人网路活动纪录。
美国政府最终于 2024 年 2 月 27 日将 Sandvine 列入实体清单，指其促成「大规模网路监控与审查」。数周内，Salesforce、Microsoft、Zoom、Dell 与 Intel 等撤回授权。文件显示，公司在 Francisco Partners 接手后累积超过 4 亿美元债务，并预估遭制裁后营收将较 2023 年的 2 亿美元下跌 50%，随后裁员数百人。2024 年 6 月，债权人财团接管公司；公司同意退出逾 50 个非民主国家，承诺未来利润的 1% 捐作数位权利用途，并于 2024 年 10 月自实体清单除名，后更名为 AppLogic Networks。文章的核心统计趋势是：高风险政权业务一度成为可观收入来源，但也迅速转化为监管、供应链与财务面的连锁崩溃。
Sandvine began as a network-management company founded in Waterloo, Ontario, in 2001, but its risk profile changed sharply after Francisco Partners bought it for $444 million in 2017. The company moved from mainly serving telecom operators to selling deep packet inspection tools directly to ministries and regulators in authoritarian states. By 2023, annual sales in Egypt alone reached $26 million, equal to 13% of Sandvine’s roughly $200 million revenue. Documents and employee accounts indicate that contracts there totaled tens of millions of dollars and gave authorities capabilities far beyond routine traffic optimization.
In Egypt, Bloomberg-reviewed records say Sandvine equipment fed large IPFIX databases that logged citizens’ internet activity. A March 2020 deal added a $400,000 software package for recording information about internet calls made through apps such as WhatsApp. Former employees and researchers said the systems could not read encrypted message content, but they could capture metadata: who contacted whom, when, what websites were visited, and which mobile apps were used. The same commercial pattern appeared elsewhere. Between 2019 and 2022, Sandvine sold to Eritrea’s transport and communication ministry, and in Algeria it sold more than $20 million in equipment, including a package able to store internet-activity logs for over 10 million people.
The turning point came on February 27, 2024, when the US placed Sandvine on the Entity List for enabling mass web monitoring and censorship. Within weeks, suppliers including Salesforce, Microsoft, Zoom, Dell, and Intel withdrew licenses. Internal documents showed Sandvine had accumulated more than $400 million in debt under Francisco Partners and expected blacklist damage to cut revenue by 50% from its 2023 level of $200 million. After layoffs affecting hundreds of employees, a lender group took control in June 2024. Sandvine agreed to leave more than 50 non-democratic countries, pledged 1% of future profits to digital-rights causes, was removed from the list in October 2024, and rebranded as AppLogic Networks. The numerical trend is stark: revenue from repressive-state clients became material, then triggered a near-collapse once regulatory intervention hit.