In light of damning new reports of state-sponsored human rights abuses facilitated by NSO Group, Candiru, and Cellebrite, Access Now is calling for urgent action to hold the surveillance industry and governments accountable.

... “These shocking exposés of privacy invasion, technology misuse, and human rights abuse facilitated by NSO Group, Cellebrite, and Candiru, are just more examples of why we urgently need to lift the curtain on this questionable industry, and hold these spyware firms and the governments to account,” said Natalia Krapiva, Tech Legal Counsel at Access Now. “The industry has shown that it is incapable of policing itself, while governments — including democratic states — are hiding behind national security to whitewash these surveillance abuses. We need regulation, transparency, and accountability now.”

Among the shocking findings, it was revealed that several members of Jamal Khashoggi’s immediate family were targeted by NSO’s Pegasus, with confirmation that the phone of his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was infected. The company has repeatedly denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, and continues selling spyware to the Saudi regime despite international concern over the government’s abuses. Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories also reported that the phone of Cecilio Pineda Birto, a journalist from Mexico, was selected as a Pegasus target before his execution in March of 2017.

... Human rights should not be the afterthought of profit-driven corporations. Access Now has continually called for accountability and transparency in the surveillance industry, and again pushes all actors — from companies, to investors, to governments — to take urgent action to end the surveillance of human rights defenders, journalists, and all civil society actors.