Nearly two years after refusing to cooperate in a European Parliament probe regarding its extensive abuse of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, Poland has made significant strides in ensuring accountability in spyware exploitation, with the country joining a Biden administration commitment against spyware misuse aside from the country's national prosecutor noting that almost 600 individuals had been subjected to spyware surveillance by its then-ruling Law and Justice party from 2017 to 2022, CyberScoop reports.
Such moves by the Polish government were regarded by privacy advocates and civil society groups to be a potential model for spyware misuse accountability for other countries.
"They're taking very seriously the steps that they need to take in order to get to the bottom of the spyware use — who authorized it, were any constraints imposed on it, who were all of the targets who were actually subjected to the spyware," said former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression David Kaye.
