
Israeli firm linked to WhatsApp spyware attack faces lawsuit - onetimemanytime
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/18/israeli-firm-nso-group-linked-to-whatsapp-spyware-attack-faces-lawsuit
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i_am_nomad
It seems like Facebook/WhatsApp would have known this exploit was being used
in the wild. With FB’s engineering talent (and budget), you’d think that there
would be automated systems to flag suspicious patterns of malformed/unexpected
JSON going around.

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i_am_proteus
Suing the company which developed a tool rather than the organization which
used the tool seems strange.

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GavinMcG
I think it seems strange where we imagine that tools are neutral. But they
aren't, necessarily, and especially if the organization/developers knew they
were building something to be used unlawfully, it's reasonable to hold them
accountable.

Taxi rides are generally neutral, too, but if someone hops into your taxi,
asks you to drive to the bank and wait, _and tells you outright_ that they're
going to rob the place, that makes you a getaway driver with a taxi, not a
taxi driver who happens to have a guilty client.

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testvox
But did they make it for an unlawful purpose? Most countries have legal
provisions to allow police or foreign intelligence to hack into phones. Could
they have been selling these tools for those purposes and someone misused
them?

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detaro
And should they have stopped once it became known it got misused? All
interesting questions for a court and the public to ponder.

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KenanSulayman
I wonder how many agencies were aware of this vulnerability and have used it
before any of this unfolded?

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olliej
I am sick the “lawful authority” excuse.

In most of the countries involved in this, and plenty of others: hacking or
arresting HRAs _is_ lawful.

In some, slavery is lawful.

In general saying “we aren’t violating human rights because we’re not
violating the law”, is not a meaningful arguments:

* slavery was (and in some places is) legal

* the holocaust was legal

* Japanese interment camps were legal

* the walk of tears (I think that was the name?) was legal

* the destruction of parihaka was legal

* gender discrimination: legal

* race discrimination: legal

Etc, etc

Legal does not mean “right”, and hiding behind that when your product is
clearly being used against HRAs is a deliberate attempt to hide
responsibility.

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_bxg1
Amnesty International donation page:
[https://www.amnesty.org/en/donate/](https://www.amnesty.org/en/donate/)

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homonculus1
Is this title gonna get censored too?

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ddffre
They should also sue some government agencies then, they are bunch of
hypocrites.

