Israel is loth to regulate its spyware exports
It may like to help its friends to snoop
WHEN INTERNATIONAL news organisations revealed that at least ten governments had used Pegasus, a powerful software tool created by Israel’s NSO Group, to hack into the smartphones of thousands of people around the world, including politicians, human-rights activists and journalists, the Israeli government shrugged. A humdrum official statement insisted that all Israeli cyber-exports were regulated by the government in “adherence to international arrangements”. Export licences were granted “exclusively to governmental entities, for lawful use, and only for the purpose of preventing and investigating crime and counter-terrorism”.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Letting Pegasus fly”
Middle East & Africa July 31st 2021
From the July 31st 2021 edition
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