What is in news : SC sets up committee to examine Pegasus allegations

Details : Stressing that the power of the state to snoop in the name of national security into the “sacred private space” of individuals is not absolute, the Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed an expert technical committee overseen by former Supreme Court judge R.V. Raveendran to examine allegations on the Centre

PEGAUS

• Pegasus is spyware software created by an Israeli-based cyber intelligence firm, NSO group. It aims to hack computers and other devices, collect sensitive information, and send it to a third party.
• This software first came into the limelight in 2016, when Arabs received a link stating secrets of torture in prison in the UAE. He sent that link to Citizen lab and found out that it was malicious spyware.
• A year later this malware started infiltrating several other android devices. In 2018, the Citizen Lab published a report that announced that more than 45 countries are using Pegasus.
• Later in 2019, Whatsapp revealed that the government of India is using Pegasus spyware to spy over journalists, politicians and activists over Whatsapp.
• This program is sold to government agencies to fight against terrorism and criminal activities