US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order to ban the use by US agencies of commercial espionage programs used to monitor human rights defenders, journalists and dissidents worldwide. The move comes amid growing global concerns about how programs, such as Israel’s NSO Group’s Pegasus, can intercept text messages and other cell phone data. While security experts and human rights activists have repeatedly warned of the potential for misuse through the mass distribution of commercial espionage programs, there is currently no list of prohibited programs included in the regulation. However, exceptions will enable government agencies to use spyware programs if they do not pose a counterintelligence or national security risk.
The White House has stated that the order “demonstrates United States leadership and commitment to advancing and promoting technology for democracy, including combating misuse of commercial spyware and other surveillance technology.” The order will allow the US to set new global industry standards, according to John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab who has long studied spyware programs.
Human rights have been known to suffer as a result of the widespread use of surveillance technologies. According to a recent UN report, drones, biometric recognition, artificial intelligence (AI) and spyware like Pegasus and Predator are increasingly causing “human rights to be obstructed and violated around the world.” Spyware developed by NSO Group Technologies is believed to have used WhatsApp servers to install spyware on 1,400 devices.
The US Congress mandated the US intelligence community to investigate the use of spyware programs abroad last year and authorized the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to ban any agency from using commercial programs. While Pegasus software is one of the better-known examples of spyware, there are hundreds or thousands more beyond its purview. It remains unclear whether US law enforcement and intelligence agencies are currently using commercial spy software, though the FBI has confirmed that it acquired NSO Group’s Pegasus tool for “product testing and evaluation only.”
