2023-06-05 16:18:00
Before the inauguration today in San José (Costa Rica) of the RightsCona summit on human rights in the digital age, Rasha Abdul Rahim, Director of Amnesty Tech, said:
“The spyware crisis has immense consequences for the future of human rights, and it is time the world did more than patch up this pervasive and covert digital intrusion into people’s lives. there must be a immediate global ban of highly invasive spyware”.
“Governments around the world must take action to stop unscrupulous spyware companies from selling their products and phones from being weaponized. It is a fact that this type of software poses a real danger to the privacy and security of anyone.”
“Highly invasive spyware has become the weapon of choice for governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and suppress dissent, putting countless lives at risk. It should be outlawed now”.
Amnesty International’s Security Lab actively monitors and investigates companies and governments that spread and misuse cyber-surveillance technologies that pose a serious threat to human rights defenders, journalists and civil society. The investigations it is conducting, for example, continue to reveal the relentless spread of Pegasus spyware from NSO Groupwhich has been used against heads of state, activists and journalists in spain, Poland, Dominican Republic and in all Latin America, middle East y Africa. The list goes on and is getting longer.
US President Biden took the first significant step to address the spyware crisis in March by signing an executive order limiting the US government’s use of commercial spyware technology. The US government and governments around the world must go further and ban highly invasive spyware.
Amnesty International defines the ‘highly invasive spyware’, of which Pegasus is just one example, such as those programs whose functionality cannot be limited and whose use cannot be independently examined. The organization also calls for a temporary worldwide ban on the use of spyware that can be limited and independently examined until a system of human rights safeguards is in place to prevent abuse.
Amnesty International at RightsCon
At Amnesty International we believe that when it comes to technology, people and human rights must come first, and we have incorporated hackers, programmers, data scientists and technicians into our team to help make it so. We investigate. We campaign. We work to change policies. We fight for justice. We hold powerful people accountable. We set the agenda for the future of technology and human rights.
The Security Lab continues to monitor and report spyware startups, thereby helping to protect civilians and billions of mobile devices from these invasive attacks. Unique forensic expertise tools, such as the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT), developed by the Security Lab, are empowering a nascent field where civil society technicians are working to protect their own communities from these threats.
Every year, RightsCon brings together activists, business leaders, policy makers, technologists and journalists from around the world to take action to defend human rights in the digital age. After the last three virtual editions, the 12th edition will have a mixed character, as it will be held online and in San José (Costa Rica), between June 5 and 8, 2023.
Hagan click here to watch the Amnesty Tech sessions at RightsCon.
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