Biden signs executive order restricting use of commercial spyware

World
By William

The decision comes as governments around the world are accused of using spyware to attack dissidents.

US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order restricting the government’s use of commercial spyware technology that has been used to target political dissidents around the world.

Monday’s move comes more than a year after the Biden administration imposed sanctions on Israeli spyware manufacturer NSO Group, which has been at the forefront of global discussions about spyware abuse. The Pegasus software has been linked to the surveillance of hundreds of political figures, journalists and human rights activists.

“Misuse of these powerful surveillance tools has not been limited to authoritarian regimes,” the White House said in a statement.

“Democratic governments have also faced revelations that actors have used commercial spyware within their systems to attack their citizens without proper legal authorization, safeguards and oversight.”

The order was announced as the US prepares for a “summit for democracy” later this week. It includes exceptions for government agencies to use spyware programs if the chief of agency determines that the software does not pose a counterintelligence or national security risk.

The decision also does not apply to spyware created by government agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, both of which have histories of illegal surveillance activity.

However, human rights groups have warned that commercial spyware has made surveillance tools more widely available. Countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been accused of using the software to target journalists and human rights groups.

The White House also confirmed on Monday that U.S. government personnel abroad are “targeted by commercial spyware” without providing details.

In December 2021, Reuters news agency reported that NSO Group software had been used to hack the phones of at least nine US State Department employees.

Privacy advocates welcomed Monday’s executive order. John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab who has studied spyware, told the Associated Press that the US had not previously “used its purchasing power to push the industry to do better.”

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