Its majority owner, Novalpina Capital, a UK private equity firm, has promised a “significant enhancement of respect for human rights” at NSO Group, whose Pegasus software was recently alleged to have infected phones through a glitch in the WhatsApp messaging software. Documents show Yana Peel, a human rights advocate, has a one-third stake in Novalpina Capital, which was founded by her husband Stephen Peel. Novalpina also said this new governance framework will “be designed to reflect the need for particular attention to be paid to adverse human rights impacts on individuals at ‘heightened risk of vulnerability or marginalisation’”, including journalists and human rights defenders. Scott-Railton said that, since taking over NSO, Novalpina had repeatedly made promises to do better, while simultaneously denying that there were problems. Last week, in the first statement it released, Novalpina credited NSO technology for disrupting plans for a terrorist attack at a crowded stadium in Europe.

Source: The Guardian June 18, 2019 17:48 UTC