Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
A Parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday decided to hold discussions on the WhatsApp security breach after much dilly-dallying, reported PTI. While the Bharatiya Janata Party members of the panel were against taking up the matter, legislators of parties such as Lok Janshakti Party and YSR Congress Party were keen on a discussion.
Read more
Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia
For the past two weeks, the central government has been mum about the issue of a spyware used on Indian lawyers and human rights activists. It seems to have finally broken its silence by justifying its actions under the IT Act, while the same is being hailed as a blatant violation of constitutionally guaranteed Right to Privacy.
Read more
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
Minister parries query, cites laws granting such power.
The Centre said it has the power to intercept, monitor and decrypt any information in the interest of the country based on certain conditions.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday did not provide a direct answer when asked in the Lok Sabha if it had used the Pegasus spyware to intercept WhatsApp calls and messages of Indians activists and journalists.
Read more
20/11 /2019
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
In response to a question raised on Pegasus in parliament, the home ministry merely said that it has the powers to conduct lawful surveillance under the IT Act and Telegraph Act.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday avoided directly answering a question raised in parliament on whether it had ever used the controversial Pegasus software to tap on WhatsApp calls and messages in this country.
Read more
Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent
The CBI raid comes a year after the Enforcement Directorate had carried out investigations into charges that the rights group had attempted to bypass the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act by floating a commercial entity, Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd.
Read more
The Indian Express / By Ravi Shankar
WhatsApp Pegasus controversy has stoked new fears about government surveillance. As terrorists use encryption to hide their plots, civil society groups cry violation of rights.
Read more
The Wire / by The Wire Analysis
While the home ministry says reports have attempted to malign the Centre, we need to know who wanted to snoop on Indian targets and how successful they were.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Thursday sought a detailed response from WhatsApp over the issue of an Israeli spyware allegedly being used to target Indian journalists and human rights activists through its platform.
Read more
The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha and Anuj Srivas
Just around the time when news of Israeli spyware Pegasus being used to target activists and human rights lawyers was breaking in India, Partho Sarothi Ray, a 42-year-old Kolkata-based molecular biologist, was dealing with another peculiar problem.
His Yahoo email account had received an alarming message from the technology company: “We believe your Yahoo account may have been the target of government-backed actors, which means that they could gain access to the information in your account.”
Read more
The Telegraph / by The Editorial Board
No country that claims to uphold human rights deprives prisoners of the right to self-improvement or the peaceful habit of reading. Yet Shalini Gera, an activist who went to visit the lawyer, Sudha Bharadwaj, imprisoned in Pune’s Yerwada jail since October 2018 for alleged links with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in the – rather enigmatic – Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, had her birthday gift of two books returned.
Read more
The Times of India / by Srinath Vudali
Hyderabad: Three daughters of Pendyala Varavara Rao, key accused in the Elgar Parishad case, are happy they didn’t drop their surname after marriage.
As luck would have it, the decision to retain the “Pendyala” name has helped them meet Varavara Rao, who is lodged in Yerawada jail in Pune for the past one year.
Read more
The Free Press Journal / by FPJ Web Desk
Facebook-owned WhatsApp on October 31 said Indian journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and politicians were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Pegasus.
Read more
8/11/2019
Countercurrents.org / Press Release by Pegasus Targeted Persons
We, the undersigned, have all received messages from WhatsApp Inc. over the last fortnight, informing us that our mobile devices were the target by a highly sophisticated cyberattack.
Read full statement