US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that limits the use of commercial spyware by federal government agencies.
The order seeks to prevent the improper use of commercial spyware by foreign governments or persons and ensure that the use of such tools by the government is consistent with human rights and democratic norms.
It also identifies the various criteria under which commercial spyware could be disqualified for use by US government agencies.
These include the sale of commercial spyware to foreign governments that have a history of political repression and human rights violations, as well as the use of spyware by foreign actors against activists and dissidents to limit freedom of expression or perpetrate human rights abuses.
The White House stated that the executive order will lay the foundation for deeper international cooperation in promoting responsible use of surveillance technology and countering its misuse.
Last week, it was reported that former security policy manager at Meta, Artemis Seaford, had her phone wiretapped and hacked by Greece’s national intelligence agency using the Predator spyware developed by Cytrox.
The move comes as surveillance tools are being increasingly deployed to extract valuable information from electronic devices remotely without the targets’ knowledge or consent.
The order does not ban the use of all spyware by government agencies, as other kinds of spyware devices, such as IMSI catchers, could still be used for intelligence-gathering operations. The move, however, acknowledges that the spyware industry plays an important role in intelligence gathering operations but constitutes a growing counterintelligence and national security risk to government personnel.
The FBI has also confirmed that it has purchased the location data of US citizens from data brokers in the past, while the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) uses spyware tools produced by an Israeli company named Paragon for counternarcotics operations.
