NSO used data of real people to pitch contact-tracing tech: Report

In a case that may involve potential privacy violations of thousands of people, researchers have found that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group resorted to using phone location data of real people while showcasing its Covid-19 contact-tracing software to governments and journalists, TechCrunch reported.

The NSO Group launched its contact-tracing technology named “Fleming” in March 2020 amid rising Covid-19 cases around the world.

Two months later, a database belonging to the Fleming programme was found unprotected online.

The database contained more than five lakh datapoints for more than 30,000 distinct mobile phones.

The NSO Group quickly secured the database when TechCrunch reported, but the Israeli company denied there was a security breach.