NSO officials comment on Pegasus spyware affair: We are self-regulated on right for privacy, transparency

On Israel with Ben Caspit, an Al-Monitor podcast

Following recent revelations that governments were spying on journalists, opposition politicians, activists and others using Pegasus spyware, Ben speaks this week with two representatives of NSO Group, the company that developed Pegasus. Brig. Gen. (res.) Ariella Ben Avraham currently serves as Global Communication Executive at NSO, while Shmuel Sunray serves as legal adviser to the group.

Rejecting accusations against NSO, Ben Avraham states, “Because of NSO, people around the world are safer…Our product enables governments to save lives, and we see that every day. We are not the enemies of anyone. We do not have data in our possession and have no access to it. We do not operate the system. All those headlines are actually pretty funny.”

Sunray argues that the company had adopted international regulations on who to sell to, how to ensure that the product is used in a proper way, and how to deal with misuse of the software, if that happens. He says that NSO would be happy to take part at an international discussion on finding the right balance between national security and right for privacy.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.