The company whose software can spy on the world
The Pegasus project
In 2019, when NSO Group was facing intense scrutiny, new investors in the Israeli surveillance company were on a PR offensive to reassure human rights groups. In an exchange of public letters, they told Amnesty International and other activists that they would do “whatever is necessary” to ensure NSO’s weapons-grade software would only be used to fight crime and terrorism.
But the claim, it now appears, was hollow. Unknown to the activists, NSO would later hatch a deal that would help a longtime government client with an awful human rights record. Dubai, a monarchy in the United Arab Emirates, wanted NSO to give it permission to expand its potential use of the spyware so it could target mobile phones in the UK.
It needed to do so, it argued, to track down drug dealers using foreign sim cards to evade surveillance.
Insiders at the company were hesitant, a person familiar with the matter said. It was a risky proposition given the track record of
