Costa Rica’s Urgent Need to Ban Invasive Spyware

The Urgency of a Global Ban on Highly Invasive Spyware

The world is at a crossroads as the spyware crisis continues to pose a fundamental threat to the privacy and security of individuals, especially human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society. Ahead of the RightsCon summit on human rights in the digital age in San José, Costa Rica, Rasha Abdul Rahim, Director of Amnesty Tech has called for a global ban on highly invasive spyware.

The Implications of the Spyware Crisis for Human Rights

The spyware crisis, which has been on the rise in recent years, has massive implications for human rights, as governments and other actors seek to monitor and control communication and online activities. Highly invasive spyware, which is surreptitiously installed on mobile devices and computers, can be used to eavesdrop on conversations, collect personal data and remotely control devices, effectively turning them into weapons to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent.

Recent revelations have highlighted the potential danger of spyware, especially NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, which has been used to target heads of state, journalists, and activists in different parts of the world, including Spain, Poland, the Dominican Republic, and many countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

The Need for Governments to Take Action

Rasha Abdul Rahim argues that the time has come for governments to take decisive action to outlaw highly invasive spyware, stop unscrupulous spyware companies from selling their products, and prevent phones from being turned into weapons. The US government has taken a significant first step by restricting its use of commercial spyware technology, but more needs to be done to impose a global ban.

For spyware that can be limited and independently audited, Amnesty International also calls for a temporary ban on its use until a system of human rights safeguards is in place to prevent abuses.

The Role of Amnesty Tech and RightsCon

Amnesty International’s Security Lab is actively monitoring and investigating companies and governments that proliferate and abuse cyber-surveillance technologies. The Lab, which includes hackers, coders, data scientists, and technologists, investigates, campaigns, works to change policy, and fights for justice in the digital age.

The Security Lab’s unique forensic tools, such as the Mobile Verification Toolkit, are also empowering civil society technologists to protect their communities from these threats, and Amnesty International’s presence at RightsCon helps to set the agenda for the future of human rights and technology.

Conclusion

The urgency of a global ban on highly invasive spyware cannot be overstated. The continued use of spyware poses a significant threat to the privacy and security of individuals and has become a tool for governments to silence dissent, journalists, and activists. As such, the world must move beyond superficial responses and take immediate, decisive action to confront this crisis.

Failure to act now risks further entrenching the normalization of invasive technology that infringes on basic human rights.

Keywords: Spyware, cybersecurity, privacy, invasive spyware, Costa Rica, ban

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