> Three months ago, a majority stake in NSO was acquired by the London based firm Novalpina Capital, founded by the banker and philanthropist Stephen Peel. It appears eager to rehabilitate the controversial software company’s reputation and maintain its value.
> "Download Valley is a cluster of software companies in Israel, producing and delivering adware to be installed alongside downloads of other software.[1] The primary purpose is to monetize shareware and downloads. These software items are commonly browser toolbars, adware, browser hijackers, spyware, and malware. Another group of products are download managers, possibly designed to induce or trick the user to install adware, when downloading a piece of desired software or mobile app from a certain source. "
I can't explain why this comment is not downvote, other than Antisemitism. USA is responsible for far more death and destruction of the whole countries like Lybia and Iraq yet, whenever Israel comes up people are so hostile.
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.
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?
Well that's partly why you file a lawsuit. If you have a reasonable belief that the answer to that is yes, a lawsuit provides a process for confirming whether and to what extent it's true.
Why is this strange? You sue the company making the tool then they tell you in court it's not them but rather entity X who abused it and give you the documents to prove it. Then you sue entity X.
> Three months ago, a majority stake in NSO was acquired by the London based firm Novalpina Capital, founded by the banker and philanthropist Stephen Peel. It appears eager to rehabilitate the controversial software company’s reputation and maintain its value.
Please change the misleading title which will bring hateful people with an agenda out of the woodwork.
should US gun manufacturers be sued for knowingly exporting to problematic countries? are they?
(should they even be allowed to sell in the US? supplying a country with so little weapon oversight seems like negligence...)
[please explain the down-votes, I really don't get it. I'm just saying this is an highly regulated military-equipment type export, and it seems strange to me that many care more about spyware than about things like missiles that are being sold around the world, often by a private regulated company to a not so perfect buyer (and governments never are)]
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.
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.
23 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 65.5 ms ] thread> Three months ago, a majority stake in NSO was acquired by the London based firm Novalpina Capital, founded by the banker and philanthropist Stephen Peel. It appears eager to rehabilitate the controversial software company’s reputation and maintain its value.
And even now, my takeaway is closer to "Israel is one of those tech startup hubs" than "the Israeli government is involved in a privacy scandal".
I think your aloof defense of Israel is suspicious, given their track record for paying individuals to sway public discourse.
> "Download Valley is a cluster of software companies in Israel, producing and delivering adware to be installed alongside downloads of other software.[1] The primary purpose is to monetize shareware and downloads. These software items are commonly browser toolbars, adware, browser hijackers, spyware, and malware. Another group of products are download managers, possibly designed to induce or trick the user to install adware, when downloading a piece of desired software or mobile app from a certain source. "
1. The company enabled several different organizations to spy on dissidents (it’s easier to sue one than many)
2. The company advertises its services to be used as such, and
3. It’s easier to sue a company than a country, and much easier to sue a company in Israel than to sue the UAE in a UAE court
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.
> Three months ago, a majority stake in NSO was acquired by the London based firm Novalpina Capital, founded by the banker and philanthropist Stephen Peel. It appears eager to rehabilitate the controversial software company’s reputation and maintain its value.
Please change the misleading title which will bring hateful people with an agenda out of the woodwork.
should US gun manufacturers be sued for knowingly exporting to problematic countries? are they?
(should they even be allowed to sell in the US? supplying a country with so little weapon oversight seems like negligence...)
[please explain the down-votes, I really don't get it. I'm just saying this is an highly regulated military-equipment type export, and it seems strange to me that many care more about spyware than about things like missiles that are being sold around the world, often by a private regulated company to a not so perfect buyer (and governments never are)]
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.