A U.S. federal court has issued a permanent injunction preventing Israel’s NSO Group from attempting to breach WhatsApp, which is Meta’s internationally popular messaging platform.
The judge reduced the punitive damages awarded to Meta from $167 million to just $4 million.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton on Friday results from a legal battle that began in 2019 when Meta accused NSO of using its Pegasus spyware to unlawfully target WhatsApp users.
The software, known for its ability to exploit software vulnerabilities and enable undercover surveillance, ha allegedly been linked to numerous human rights abuse allegations, according to Amnesty International.
NSO had previously warned the court that such a restriction on interacting with Whatsapp would severely threaten its business model, arguing that being cut off from WhatsApp would “put NSO’s entire enterprise at risk” and could even “force NSO out of business.”
Meta applauded the decision as a win for privacy and civil society.
“Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,” said Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, in a post on X. “We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society.”
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
There is no such thing as privacy now. Every keystroke, everything is monitored.
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It’s not difficult to realise what would have happened, if the present situation occured during the Cold War. A major political international crisis …
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As I understand, Sasjal, the War Department operatives pretty exclusively with Israeli-made software (that spies on them) and they tolerate it.
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There are a lot of politicians and other people in sensitive positions, that uses regular “smartphones”, at the same time being completly obiviant about what those phones are capable of, regardless of country. Well in one place, they are aware – in the European parliament, where those phones are banned for obvious reasons.
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Wow, interesting. I had no idea.
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I think this is part of the reason, Trace, why Generation Z is abandoning the Internet in mass for gardening, camping, board games and other offline activities.
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That gives me goosebumps – and HOPE
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Funny … So Meta would like to have exclusive rights …
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That’s very ironic, SasjaL, isn’t it?
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