Let's talk about targeted counterterrorism against Israeli citizens
In a democracy, authorities are not allowed to eliminate civilians, not even those suspected of crime.
Equally the state must not be allowed to pump a person's brain.
The tools of Pegasus and NSO are a danger to all of us and must be stopped immediately
Eran Tiefenbrunn
20/01/2022
Thursday, 20 January 2022, 12:38 Updated: 15:19
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An event that is quite possible: Police intelligence receives information about a person, a citizen, who goes out to eliminate another person. The outcome of the incident is clear: this elimination will be followed by a reaction and a counter-reaction and bloodshed. The only way to stop the event from happening is a targeted elimination. The recommendation of the operational echelon: from the air using a UAV. The operation goes up for approval by the commissioner, who approves. A UAV goes up in the air, the target's vehicle is identified and about 150 meters east of Bloomfield Stadium it is destroyed from the air, with no peripheral damage or other casualties
. Citizens, even if these are very bad citizens with malicious intent.Every reasonable person should rejoice that this is an impossible, legal and moral event.
Precisely for this reason, the use of devices such as the offensive cyber software of NSO and Pegasus by the Israel Police should arouse fear in the hearts of each of us.
Because in a world of slippery slope, where it penetrates the minds of citizens by such means - will frustrate their lives in the future.
More on Walla!
Police say: "We know how to listen to criminals and murderers, not to spy on protesters."
To the full article
A secret and fingerprint-free layout.
NSO offices (Photo: Reuters)
What does NSO and the like provide, which has not happened before? The current offensive product is a new story - a reality that has not existed in the entire history of information gathering so far. First of all, pumping the information stored in a mobile device is similar to pumping our whole head. Not only present but also past information. Every event, every conversation, every record and every location of our present and past. As if someone foreign has entered your mind. Does not leave anything hidden - including what we have already deleted.
In addition, products from previous generations, Celebrity for example, knew how to extract information from a mobile device but required physical proximity to the device. Had to put a hand on the phone to vacuum the information. Pegasus and NSO products know how to pump remotely, without the device owner even being aware of the pumping event. There is no physical contact, there is a secret and fingerprint-free outline.
Third point: In the outdated tools, the boundaries of the content could be delineated.
Police appear before a judge and ask for permission to listen to the line of a person suspected of plotting a crime with another person.
The judge would have allowed the listening to conversations between these two to be listened to.
Everything else - including conversations with your spouse or parents for example - is out of bounds.
The new tools no longer have "out of bounds".
Everything is pumped.
There is no more confidentiality to either side of a person's life.
In the past, in order to obtain similar information, agents, dubbing, surveillance and tracking operations, covert intrusions, etc. were required.
The ease of operation along with the quality of the information make the temptation to use the tools such that intelligence personnel simply can not resist.
There is no more "out of bounds".
Commissioner Shabtai (Photo: Israel Police Spokeswoman)
Another code - preserving the information collected: even if the information is not used (and even if there are strict rules in the way it is stored) - our whole brain is kept in the police drawers. When required in the future, someone will probably be able to pull out data for some purpose.
Now let's talk about "court approval". Is it at all relevant anymore? Is it possible to put legal restraints on tools that have no technological restraint? The phrase "we got a judge's approval" loses all meaning. What did the judge approve? What are the limits of the collection operation? Baking the boundary between relevant and irrelevant information? The law no longer knows how to address the new tools. Not just because they are new - but because they are different tools. This is no longer wiretapping. This is already brain pumping. It is a completely different world and the law is not edited for it.
Back to the beginning: In a democracy, where the citizens are the sovereign, there is no room for targeted killings of citizens.
Therefore, it is also forbidden to pump out the brains of citizens.
If the use of such collection tools against citizens is approved - there will be no way back.
In terms of collection mechanisms, these tools are like the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Once they have been bitten - there will be no way back.
It is therefore incumbent on us, the media and citizens who are for democracy and freedom, to stop it now and close the dam immediately.
The writer is a Walla!
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