The eye in the S.K.

Imperial and other universities paid Horus Security Consultancy Ltd, a security consultancy, to “monitor campus protest activity,” according to an investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates published on 20^th April. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests revealed that twelve British universities had paid the firm a total of over £440,000 since 2022, with Imperial paying more than all disclosed payments from other universities combined.

The investigation did not suggest Imperial College or the other universities had engaged in illegal activity.  Imperial says that it does not use Horus, or any external service, to conduct surveillance on students. 

Horus provides a service called “Insight”, which offers regular intelligence digests based on open-source internet data. Based on documents disclosed by other universities, including LSE and Bristol, Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates alleged that in some cases, Horus “trawled through student social media feeds and conducted secret counter-terror threat assessments.” 

Horus did not respond to Felix's request for comment.

In a response to an FOI request from Liberty Investigates, Imperial wrote in April 2025 that it “has not used any external company to conduct private investigations into or surveillance of individuals.”

“Horus provides intelligence briefings to Imperial on events occurring in the vicinity of the university that might present a risk to the Imperial community, this would include protest activity,” the College added. “The intelligence provided by Horus is compiled from information in the public domain.”

Imperial also disclosed payments to Horus totalling £255,250 between 2022 and 2024, but refused to release intelligence briefings it received from the company, citing Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, which provides an exemption where disclosure of information would prejudice commercial interests. 

Felix understands that Imperial’s commercial relation with Horus is ongoing.