NEW: When Kenyan cops arrested activist & presidential candidate @bonifacemwangi they took his devices.
When he got his personal phone back, the password was gone.
We @citizenlab found they'd abused @cellebrite to break into it.
Here's why this abuse matters 1/
2/ Your phone holds the keys to your life, and governments shouldn’t be able to help themselves to the contents just because they don’t like what you are saying.
But everywhere you look, cops are getting phone cracking technology from companies like @cellebrite.
Many abuse it.
3/ @Cellebrite's abuse potential is clear.
Now, Cellebrite says that they have a human rights committee & do due diligence...
Because even Cellebrite knows that if you sell phone cracking tech to security services with bad oversight, you have a problem.
So why are there so many sales to questionable security services?
2/ Companies like Paragon (founded in Israel, former Israeli intelligence ppl, recently sold to a US owner) make hacking American technology companies their business model.
And then selling these capabilities to foreign governments.
How can this be?
3/ Honestly it is astonishing that a company that works tirelessly to hack & undermine the security of American products is now US-owned.
The missing factor: building contracts with the US government & lobbying.
The goal of these contracts, I believe, isn't just profit. It's getting protection & building government dependency on their technology.
Here are some more damming revelations as Intellexa, the shady, sanctioned spyware supplier gets exposed by @AmnestyTech & partners.. /1
2/ First, a mercenary spyware myth has just been busted.
Because the leak shows an Intellexa employee directly accessing a customer deployment.
Prior to the #PredatorFiles leak, spyware companies basically always claimed they couldn't access customer deployments & didn't know what was going on there.
They used this to avoid responsibility & claim ignorance when faced with abuses.
3/ And it gets crazier. The leak shows Intellexa casually accessing a core backbone of Predator deployment of a government customer.
Seemingly without the gov's knowledge.
Suggests that Intellexa can look over their shoulder & watch their sensitive targeting.