The fourth and final session of the Virtual Routes Colloquium Fall/Winter series hosts Natalia Krapiva from Access Now. Natalia will present her research on “Dangerous by Design: What makes commercial spyware so prone to abuse?”.  Fionnuala Ni Aolain (University of Minnesota) will act as discussant.

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Abstract:

There has been greater awareness of the threats that the proliferation of commercial spyware poses to human rights, democracy, and national security in recent years, which spurred heated debates about what measures are needed to address these threats. While governments like the E.U. and the U.S. have begun regulating commercial spyware through sanctions, export controls, and other measures, some civil society groups have been calling for more restrictions, including banning of spyware as fundamentally incompatible with human rights law. The paper will examine the design and use of spyware technologies to highlight their most unique and dangerous aspects that call for strict control and regulation, if not an outright ban. The paper will rely on the out of court witness statements, in court testimonies, and other legal documents from the WhatsApp v. NSO legal case, public reporting by media and civil society, Italy’s parliamentary committee on security (COPASIR) report on the investigation into Italy’s use of Paragon’s spyware, and interviews with researchers and technologists.

The views expressed during this session are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of Access Now.