European rights groups push for full EU ban on commercial spyware

European digital rights movement EDRi is calling on the political leaders of EU Member States to implement a full ban on spyware in the European Union.

According to the advocacy group, spyware continues to spread across Europe.

“Despite repeated scandals in at least 14 Member States, and clear evidence of human rights violations, neither the European Commission nor States have introduced any red lines,” EDRi says.

The digital rights group is referring to numerous spyware scandals that have occurred in various European countries over the past few years, including Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

In these cases, commercially available spyware, such as Pegasus and Predator, was used to illegally target journalists, political opponents, human rights defenders, migrants, or business leaders.

Once installed, spyware is able to take complete control over a victim’s phone. For example, this enables an attacker to activate the microphone or camera to spy on a target and their surroundings. He can also choose to steal sensitive information, including photos, videos, documents, and a victim’s whereabouts.

Yet, despite these risks, spyware remains unaddressed and unregulated in the EU.

To address the issue, EDRi published a position paper last year, outlining a legal, technical, and human rights framework for a full ban on spyware in the EU.

However, nothing has changed since then. To readdress the dangers of spyware, EDRi has launched a so-called “document pool” containing in-depth information and its position on spyware.

“Spyware is incompatible with human rights because its intrusive, covert access to a person’s device exposes massive amounts of information, and compromises the device’s integrity. This makes it impossible to satisfy the fundamental-rights requirements of necessity and proportionality, and impossible to subject its use to effective oversight,” the digital rights group said in a press release.

In short, EDRi’s demands can be summarized in three categories. For starters, the advocacy group is asking European policymakers for a full ban on spyware and trading exploits used to spread spyware in the EU.

Secondly, it’s asking for a ban on commercial spyware and targeted sanctions against vendors. Lastly, EDRi is pleading for full access to legal and non-legal remedies for all victims of spyware.

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