this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Privacy
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It's a good article, but the title is misleading.
The FBI paid a company to find a few people's locations, and they were under the impression that the company would use in-house software, not NSO spyware.
At no point did the FBI use NSO spyware. Riva Networks did.
You can argue its misleading but I disagree. Outsourcing bad behavior to a third party doesn't remove culpability on your part. This is all to common these days and allows both parties to point fingers at each other while nobody faces any responsibility for breaking the law, violating people's rights, and/or unethical behavior.
The FBI just using assumptions and impressions on methodologies used by the company they contracted with is no excuse when they could have asked how the work was going to be performed. Incompetence is no excuse either.
I'm not saying the FBI should be excused for this. I'm saying the title is factually wrong and is designed to provoke attention
Even with that I think it's debatable. They were employed by the FBI at the time of usage so it isn't totally inaccurate to say it was the FBI doing it and we don't know what knowledge the FBI guys had of the company's methods.
The good news is the FBI cut the relationship. I'm not sure if that was because of public pressure or there desire to do the right thing
Thats plausible deniablity for you.
At no point did the US military torture hostages in those blacksites.
Not sure it matters. The responsibility still lies with the org that paid.
Still funny though