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Comment by praptak | Hacker News Reader

Israel banned Poland from using NSO spyware after this: https://wyborcza.pl/7,173236,27895266,israel-bans-polish-int...

"On November 25, the Times of Israel reported that the Israeli government has banned the sales of Pegasus to autocratic regimes, as well as to the governments of Poland and Hungary. The list of countries to which Israeli surveillance companies can sell their spyware has been reduced from 102 to 37. Among others, the blacklisted states now include the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. In the EU, it is Poland and Hungary."

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This happened November 2021, while the software was used to attack public prosecutor and advocate in 2019. That means that they never reviewed the targets, and only reacted after the NGOs published a list of illegal attacks.

(Eavesdropping advocate is illegal under Polish law.)

I should hope that eavesdropping anyone is illegal under Polish law.

Obviously it is, by default. I think GP meant there is no legal way to obtain a warrant to eavesdrop on an attorney.

Unless a prosecutor mandated it. Mandated by some politician, because there are no independent prosecutors in Europe, but in Italy.

>Times of Israel reported that the Israeli government has banned the sales of Pegasus to autocratic regimes, as well as to the governments of Poland and Hungary

This may sound a little paranoid but I always treat declarations like this with a grain of salt.

It's not. As if it was beyond the Israelean government itself to resort to such tactics ... In fact, I know only very few governments where I would be willing to swear on my life that they would never use such tactics.

> I know only very few governments where I would be willing to swear on my life that they would never use such tactics.

What are they?

Probably only the governments that can't afford it

Isn't it possible(even likely) that they're just.. not telling the truth? I mean when you're in the business of hacking high level politicians, it's not unexpected that you would also lie a bit about how who you do that to.

> banned the sales of Pegasus to autocratic regimes, as well as to the governments of Poland and Hungary.

So I guess Poland and Hungary are not autocratic regimes, from Israel's POV.

I think you're seeing a distinction the authors of the AP article, one of whom is based in Poland, felt like they needed to make.

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