The abuse of technology and monitoring of “potential threats” has raised questions about a free country and media. The recent revelations of governments spying on people who can threaten them have taken the internet by storm. The list of people being spied on consists of more than half a lakh people from across the globe. Pegasus is a spyware designed by the Israeli technology firm NSO Group. The functioning of the spyware is such that it can remotely be installed and can also be used to extract data from phones. These revelations have also shown how this spyware can penetrate through WhatsApp’s encryption and the advanced security of Apple’s iOS. After getting installed, Pegasus can gather information from a personal computer, laptop, mobile phone, or tablet. The remote user can read emails and text messages, track locations and calls, access notes, calendar, and browser history. They can also switch on the camera and mic of the phone while operating on the device. In short, the user can have access to all the device’s controls, including gathering information from all applications like Gmail, Telegram, WhatsApp, Skype, and others.The NSO group have maintained their stand by declining all the allegations. In a statement, they said that the company sells Pegasus only to “vetted governments” to help them combat terrorism by providing the means of “lawful interception.” The spyware achieved global prominence in August 2016 after a ‘failed’ attempt at hacking the phone of UAE human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor. The hacking attempt was detected when he received text messages with a few web links that promised “new secrets” about brutality in the UAE prisons. At that time, Citizen Lab ran tests and found that his phone would have been compromised had Mansoor clicked on these links. The New York Times and Times of Israel reported that UAE has allegedly been using Pegasus since 2013. In 2021, Forbidden Stories and 16 other international media organisations revealed governments using Pegasus spyware against their citizens. The expose revealed that around 1,000 phone numbers belonged to India and were put on the list of potential targets. The list included names of opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Banerjee, around 40 journalists, and student activists. Many experts believe that the government used this spyware to protect leaders in power and monitor the opposition and investigative journalists in the media. They have also brought how the government has unlawfully intercepted phones by completely ignoring the IT Act. The government has denied all these allegations. When asked about the interventions, a source from the Ministry of External Affairs said, “Well, it’s a gross invasion of privacy, of course. States often treat privacy as separate and direct their energies towards corporates and their abuse of it.” In a generation that promotes data privacy, it would be interesting to see how the Pegasus scandal would be addressed.
10 Jan 2022
Abhishek Anand
