A US court recently found Israeli IT company NSO Group responsible for targeting the mobile and laptop computers of 1,400 WhatsApp users. The group is the maker of the Pegasus spyware, which is used to spy on government officials, politicians, journalists, human rights activists and other members of society. Pegasus is notorious worldwide, but India’s opposition parties allege that despite this, it was allowed into the country during the Modi government’s tenure.
NSO also claims that it sells the device only to governments. The US District Court for Northern California has ruled after a five-year trial that the NSO Group violated privacy by exploiting a flaw in WhatsApp. US law considers unauthorized access to computers and other digital information to be a crime. This is fraud. WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart said the decision was a big win for privacy. Spyware companies cannot escape accountability for their illegal activities by using the excuse of security.
Of the 1,400 people targeted by Pegasus, 300 were from India. The matter also reached the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court had formed a technical committee in 2021 to investigate. The committee, in its report submitted in 2022, said that it had not found conclusive evidence that illegal surveillance was carried out with Pegasus. The committee’s report was not made public. Even then, the Supreme Court had said that the committee had complained that the government had not fully cooperated in the investigation.
After the US court’s decision, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala has asked whether the Supreme Court will order further investigation into the matter after the US court’s decision. He further said that it is time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to answer who were the 300 people who were spied on with Pegasus. Who were the three opposition leaders, two Union ministers, a constitutional officer, a businessman and a journalist who were spied on. He also questioned whether the government will register a criminal case against the owners of NSO? Will the Supreme Court take note of the US court’s decision? Will it make the report of its expert committee public?
