German police used Pegasus spyware, admits government

FRANKFURT: The German government admitted on Tuesday that its federal police service used controversial Israeli spyware Pegasus, parliamentary sources told AFP.

Germany’s BKA federal police bought the software from Israel’s NSO Group in late 2019, a closed-door parliamentary committee heard from government officials. The admission, recounted by sources at the meeting, confirmed earlier reports in media outlets Zeit, Sueddeutsche, NDR and WDR.

Pegasus, which is able to switch on a phone’s camera or microphone and harvest its data, came under global scrutiny after a list of about 50,000 potential surveillance targets - including journalists, activists and politicians - was leaked in July.

French President Emmanuel

Macron changed his phone after his number appeared on a list of potential targets.

The German parliamentary sources said the BKA, which falls under the interior ministry, used the Pegasus software “in a small number of cases”. It remains unclear whether German intelligence agencies also used the software.

Germany’s strict privacy laws only allow for data harvesting under very specific conditions, which led the BKA to buy a version of the software in which some spy functions were switched off, the committee heard. It is not known what, if any, safeguards were in place to ensure those options remained unused.

Amnesty International called for “urgent rules on public procurement that require state agencies to also consider companies’ human rights records when making purchases”.