Source: Amnesty International –
Responding to a ruling that spyware maker NSO Group must pay more than USD167 million in damages to Whatsapp, Rebecca White, Amnesty International’s researcher on targeted surveillance, said:
“This is a momentous win in the fight against spyware abuse. NSO Group, which develops the notorious and highly invasive Pegasus spyware, has been implicated in severe human rights violations against civil society, including journalists and activists, globally.
“For years, Amnesty International and civil society partners have documented how spyware companies, like NSO Group, have enabled human rights abuses on a massive scale. The surveillance industry has failed to act. We trust that this victory will deter the spyware industry, its investors and its government customers worldwide. We hope this judgement offers some measure of solace to Pegasus’ thousands of victims. Let this be a signal, loud and clear, that change is imminent. Those who misuse spyware to infringe on human rights will be held accountable and cannot act with impunity.
We trust that this victory will deter the spyware industry, its investors and its government customers worldwide.
Rebecca White, Amnesty International researcher on targeted surveillance
“This decision should serve as a wake-up call to governments to take proactive, concrete steps to regulate the surveillance industry, to enforce safeguards on their surveillance practices, and to comprehensively ban tools that are inherently incompatible with human rights obligations and standards, such as Pegasus.”