Human-rights lawyers, activists, and journalists in Mexico registered a criminal grievance last week following a report that their handsets had been tainted with spying app traded to the government to wrestle against terrorists and criminals.
The grievance to the office of attorney general by 9 individuals followed a report by the well-known media giant, the New York Times, that most of them had been tracked down with apps named as Pegasus, which NSO Group and Israeli company sold to the Government of Mexico.
Quoting a report by a study group that examined the supposed spying app, the grievance says that the defense ministry and the attorney general’s office were amongst those government organizations who bought the app.
Those saying to be targeted by the app comprised a journalist named Carmen Aristegui, who back in 2014 assisted to disclose that wife of President Enrique Pena Nieto had obtained a house from a big management contractor; as well as a journalist named Carlos Loret de Mola, who works at Televisa—a leading television network.
Others comprised in the grievance were anti-corruption lawyers and activists on behalf of the families of 43 trainee teachers whose apparent massacre and disappearance back in 2014 generated a vast public relations pain for President Pena Nieto.
Daniel Millan, a narrator in the office of Pena Nieto, rolled out a statement claiming that there was no evidence that showed the Mexican Government was accountable for the spying which is defined in the New York Times. “We criticize any effort to infringe the right to solitude of any individual,” the statement claimed.
A media report in 2015 pointed out that surveillance requests from government were gaining speed in Mexico, elevating concerns regarding a lack of oversight in a country overwhelmed by collusion and corruption between criminal gangs and security forces.
The Government of Mexico bought almost $80 Million value of spyware apps from NSO Group on clause that it will only be employed to investigate terrorists and criminals, the media said.
Well, we are not sure about the employment of such spying software on public. So, all we need to do is wait and watch.
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