UN urges better regulation of surveillance technology after Pegasus revelations

File image: Michelle Bachelet.

United Nations voiced alarm on July 19 at reports that stated "widespread" use of Pegasus software to spy on activists, journalists and others, stressing the urgent need for better regulation of surveillance technology.

The reports about the Pegasus spyware made by Israeli firm NSO Group "confirm the urgent need to better regulate the sale, transfer and use of surveillance technology and ensure strict oversight and authorisation", UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

Use of surveillance software has been linked to arrest, intimidation and even killings of journalists and human rights defenders. Reports of surveillance also have the invidious effect of making people censor themselves through fear. Journalists and human rights defenders play an indispensable role in our societies, and when they are silenced, we all suffer.

“I would like to remind all States that surveillance measures can only be justified in narrowly defined circumstances, with a legitimate goal. And they must be both necessary and proportionate to that goal," the statement further added.

Created by Israeli cyber intelligence firm NSO Group, Pegasus exists to help law enforcement battle crime. The NSO says that it intended to "develop best-in-class technology to help government agencies detect and prevent terrorism and crime."

Meanwhile, NSO Group has denied media reports its Pegasus software is linked to the mass surveillance of journalists and rights defenders, and insisted that all sales of its technology are approved by Israel's defence ministry.

However, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and other news outlets that collaborated on an investigation reported on a leaked list of up to 50,000 phone numbers believed to have been identified as people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016, not all of whom were hacked.

With AFP inputs