WhatsApp snoop: Targeted users want govt to explain ties with Israeli firm

A group of Indians including journalists and lawyers whose phones were hacked via Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging platform asked the government on Friday to make public its ties with the Israeli firm accused of deploying the spyware.

WhatsApp last week sued Israel’s NSO Group, accusing it of helping clients break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users – including diplomats, political dissidents, journalists, military and government officials – across four continents.

NSO denied the allegations and said it sells technology to governments to counter terrorism. India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with 400 million users.

The group of 19 affected Indian users said in an open letter that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government must explain whether it had mounted the surveillance on them.