Activists worried spyware being used to curb dissent

The ghost of Pegasus surveillance has come to haunt Indian politicians and journalists. Late on Monday, some leaders from the opposition and journalists received an alert from iPhone maker Apple warning against a ‘state-sponsored attack’.

Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, and journalists such as Siddharth Varadarajan and Revathi were among those who claimed to have received these alerts.

‘These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do... they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone’ read the alert.

The US tech giant has since said it does not attribute the alert “to any specific state-sponsored attacker”. It could also be a “false alarm”, it added and explained, “Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete”.

The ruling party BJP has denied the snooping allegations. CERT-In, nodal cybersecurity agency, is probing the case and has sought Apple’s cooperation. It has also issued high-risk warnings about vulnerabilities in Apple products, asking users to update their devices.

Pallavi Bedi, senior researcher, The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), says, “Every country that has funds for it (high-grade spyware) is using it. But to what degree it is used and on whom, we don’t know. So beware of the communication platforms you use and check what kind of data a new app will have access to while downloading it.”

More Bengaluru activists and thinkers weigh in on the surveillance row.

‘Intimidation ahead of 2024 election’

The Bhima Koregaon case (activists and political leaders were arrested for allegedly inciting caste-based violence in Pune in 2017) is living proof of how spyware is misused to suppress dissent. Stan Swamy, among those arrested without ‘evidence’, died in prison. It was later reported that digital devices of some of the accused were compromised by Pegasus and incriminating documents were planted. They
were booked under the anti-terrorist UAPA act.

Surveillance, raids by the Enforcement Directorate (in the NewsClick case), and other intimidation tactics are increasing as the 2024 election approaches. The demand for better privacy safeguards has to become a people’s movement and the Supreme Court must support it.

Shivasundar,
Activist and freelance journalist

‘Against right to privacy’

Such attacks are scary when we already have an example of the Bhima Koregaon case where extreme surveillance, data breach, and evidence tampering have been reported. This will impact our democracy.

A surveillance state does not align with the (tenets of the) Indian constitution, especially the right to privacy. There can be cases of exception but even there, the state has to justify why it wants to surveil on three counts: What is the purpose? Is this step necessary? Is the action reasonable? If this process is not followed, people will lose confidence in the rule of law.

Vinay Sreenivasa,
Advocate, Alternative Law Forum

‘Political action or nation’s interest?’
Normally, surveillance is done on people whom the state suspects of being anti-national or anti-establishment. The state can argue it is their duty to protect the nation and, therefore, surveil those people. But if there is generalised surveillance, with no reasons to believe they are against the state, it is a problem. Then it becomes an instrument for political action rather than in the nation’s interest.

Narendar Pani,
Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies

‘Indirect censorship impacts everybody’

Surveillance has a chilling effect not only on people who are targeted but also the ordinary people. Let’s talk about the former. You can equate their situation to being tracked by a watchtower in a jail, whether they are doing something wrong or not. It can force people to curtail what they are doing, which could either be opposition leaders or journalists questioning the ruling government. This indirect censorship will impact the common man because politicians, thinkers and journalists are their voice. Nobody could be prepared for high-end, sophisticated and exclusive attacks such as in the Apple hacking case. The law needs to catch up. We are yet to see The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, come into force fully.

Thejesh G N,
Data activist

‘Deploy security research community for public good’

If citizens see a well-known public figure becoming a victim of such surveillance, it will instill fear in them. Even those who could’ve been potential voices of dissent will no longer raise their voices. India has a strong security research community but they aren’t being put to use for (public) good. If that happens, it can organically improve our state of security.

Pranav M Bidare,
Researcher, CIS