Saifan and the Weaponization of Trade Secrets Zeitouni, Stav Author aut Diamond, Noa Author aut Text xx# 2023 Verfassungsblog 2023-06-28 eng
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 The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee has been convening to discuss the regulation of spyware in response to the on-going fall-out over the Israeli police’s use of the spyware Pegasus (“Saifan” in its local iteration) to surveil Israeli citizens, including political activists. Public debate has chiefly focused on the question of legal authority surrounding police surveillance but has generally failed to recognize the underlying cooptative dynamics of governmental technology procurement. In this post, we detail the contested legal grounds on which the Israeli police and Ministry of Justice rely for spyware authorization as well as an analysis of the government procurement of surveillance technology, with particular emphasis on the weaponization of trade secrets in the service of strategic concealment of governmental operations. We argue that the combination of outdated laws with nontransparent operations make public accountability and oversight intensely difficult. CC BY-SA 4.0 Zeitouni, Stav Israel Knesset police Spyware surveillance 342 https://verfassungsblog.de/saifan-and-the-weaponization-of-trade-secrets/ Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH 10.17176/20230628-111055-0 230628 10.17176/20230628-111055-0 Converted from MARCXML to MODS version 3.7 using MARC21slim2MODS3-7.xsl (Revision 1.140 20200717)