Biden Signs Executive Order to Clamp Down on Commercial Spyware

Alexandra Seymour, an associate fellow for the technology and national security programme at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told Middle East Eye that the executive order demonstrated Washington’s recognition of the emerging threat posed by commercial spyware.

There is a robust appetite for technology that allows users to secretly invade mobile phones, accessing their private data or converting them into tracking and recording devices to spy on their owners.

“The trade in this technology has not only flourished with authoritarian regimes but increasingly in democratic countries and key US allies,” Seymour said.

Israel ranks as the top origin country for spyware, according to an industry data set maintained by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

The executive order comes as the Biden administration prepares for the launch of its second annual Democracy Summit where the US will host an event on the misuse of technology, with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and national security director Avril Haines set to speak.

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