Pegasus scandal: Are we all becoming unknowing spies?

[dvernb]

The allegations that spy software known as Pegasus may have been used to carry out surveillance on journalists, activists - and even perhaps political leaders - highlights that surveillance is now for sale.

The company behind the tool, NSO Group, has denied the allegations and says its customers are carefully assessed.

But it is another sign that high-end spy techniques, which used to be the exclusive preserve of a few states, are now spreading more widely and challenging the way we think about privacy and security in an online world.

In the not-too-distant past, if a security service wanted to find out what you were up to, it took a fair degree of effort. They might get a warrant to wiretap your phone. Or plant a bug in your house. Or send a surveillance team to follow you.

Finding out who your contacts were and how you lived your life would take patience and time.

Now, almost everything they might want to know - what you say, where you have been, who you meet, even what interests you - is all contained in a device we carry all the time.

Your phone can be accessed remotely without anyone even touching it and you never knowing that it's been turned from your friendly digital assistant into someone else's spy.

Much more here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57910355


And more here:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/morocco-denies-spyware-target-french-officials-78964009

 

[Makara]

what we know from Edward Snowden that the NSA and CIA could eve drop on us and people around us ... they could turn our phones on and our cameras ... so yeah Pegasus is Israelis software but i wouldn't be surprised if it's origins is from the NSA/CIA software used by US securities services at the time of Edward Snowden 

 

[splitinfinitive]

This wouldn't cause personal concern to the vast majority of phone users like myself who's activities are of absolutely no interest to outsiders, let alone security services.

My knowledge, mostly gleaned from crime novels and TV shows, is that people who are of interest to law enforcement agencies go to considerable trouble to protect themselves from phone tracing and hacking and have done so for years.

A good example is "The Wire" where the drug dealing empire falls apart because the weeks phones are purchased incorrectly by a preoccupied foot soldier.

Often the bad guys have more money and resources than the people pursuing them.

 

[Makara]

This wouldn't cause personal concern to the vast majority of phone users like myself who's activities are of absolutely no interest to outsiders, let alone security services.

My knowledge, mostly gleaned from crime novels and TV shows, is that people who are of interest to law enforcement agencies go to considerable trouble to protect themselves from phone tracing and hacking and have done so for years.

A good example is "The Wire" where the drug dealing empire falls apart because the weeks phones are purchased incorrectly by a preoccupied foot soldier.

Often the bad guys have more money and resources than the people pursuing them.

it becomes a problem their is a big independence movement in your country then everyone is targeted