Germany admits police used Israeli spyware Pegasus

German government officials admit, in a closed parliament session, the German Federal Police's purchase and use of the Israeli NSO Group's Pegasus spyware program in late 2019.

Sources from within the German parliament confirm that the Federal Police has used the Pegasus program in a limited number of cases

German government officials acknowledged, in a closed parliamentary session, the purchase and use of the German Federal Police's Pegasus spyware program produced by the Israeli NSO Group.

The controversial Israeli spyware program was bought by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in late 2019.

And the Agence France-Presse quoted parliamentary sources as saying that the German government acknowledged the use of the Pegasus spyware program by its federal police.

For its part, the German Association of Journalists and Amnesty International strongly condemned the use of the program.

With this recognition, the validity of previous reports in German newspapers and media organizations that spoke about the matter is confirmed.

While sources within the German parliament have confirmed that the Federal Police, which is under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior, used Pegasus "in a limited number of cases", it remains unknown whether German intelligence agencies have also used the program.

Once installed on someone's device, Pegasus can turn on smartphone cameras and microphones and collect its data.

For his part, the Federal President of the German Association of German Journalists (DJV), Frank Oberal, demanded to know "whether journalists were spied on without their knowledge, and whether their sources were still safe."

According to the parliamentary committee, the Federal Police has discontinued some spying features in the copies of the program it purchased.

Germany's strict privacy laws allow data to be collected only in very specific circumstances.

For its part, Amnesty called for the establishment of urgent rules for government procurement, requiring government agencies to consider the human rights records of companies when making purchases.