Government leaves spyware key question open

The Narendra Modi government has asked Facebook-owned WhatsApp to explain the nature of a snooping operation involving an Israeli spyware on Indian journalists, activists and academics, and the Union home ministry described as “misleading” attempts to malign the government.

On Thursday, The Indian Express newspaper had quoted a WhatsApp spokesman as saying that an unstated number of Indians were targets of surveillance by an Israeli spyware. The spyware can take full control of the devices, enabling snooping as well as injection of data that can incriminate the users.

WhatsApp’s comments came after the messaging platform sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users, including diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and government officials, across four continents. NSO has denied the allegations.