Israeli police have employed NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to extract data from phones belonging to Israeli citizens, according to an investigation by the country’s Calcalist business publication. Police reportedly used the controversial software to target a number of individuals, including politicians and members of an activist group that had called for the removal of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the report, Israeli police conducted their surveillance without court supervision, a claim both police and public officials deny.

“All police activity in this field is done in accordance with the law, on the basis of court orders and strict work procedures,” Israeli Police said. The Washington Post reports Omer Bar-Lev, the country’s country’s public security minister, said an initial investigation had found no evidence of a “secretive wiretapping” program but promised a judge would check everything “thoroughly and unequivocally.”

“We would like to clarify that the company does not operate the systems in its customers’ possession and is not involved in their operation,” NSO Group said in a statement the company shared with Israeli media. “The company sells its products under license and supervision for the use of security bodies and state law enforcement agencies, to prevent crime and terrorism legally, and according to court orders and local law in each country.”

Per The Guardian, Israeli law only allows Shin Bet, the country’s domestic intelligence agency, to hack a phone without a court order. What’s more, the only context in which the agency is allowed to carry out such an action is to prevent a terrorist attack involving Palestinians, Israeli-Arabs or Israeli-Jews. Approval from a senior Shin Bet official or the attorney general’s office is also required. No such exemption exists for the country’s police service. However, according to Calcalist, the software wasn’t directly covered by Israel’s existing laws.

The report comes a month after Reuters found the Pegasus spyware had been used to target at least nine US State Department officials. In that instance, an unknown assailant had used the software to target federal employees who were either stationed in Uganda or whose work involved the African country. NSO has claimed its software can’t target devices linked to American or Israeli phone numbers. 

Source: Engadget – Israeli police reportedly used Pegasus spyware to conduct domestic surveillance

Folks in the US can now order free, at-home COVID-19 tests from a United States Postal Service website, one day earlier than expected. Last week, the Biden administration said people would be able to place orders starting on Wednesday. At the time of the announcement, COVIDtests.gov was a placeholder site, but it now directs users to the USPS to place an order.

Households can each request one set of four rapid antigen tests. USPS will start shipping the kits later this month and usually within seven to 12 days of ordering. 

The administration says the site went live one day early as part of its beta phase, according toCNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Officials are hoping to troubleshoot the site and ensure the official launch goes smoothly on Wednesday. Sure enough, at the time of writing, some people were having trouble loading the site, so you might not be able to place an order right away.

The COVIDtests.gov site provides some more information about the tests. You should see results within 30 minutes and can be taken anywhere. It provides guidance on when to take a test, as well as directions on what to do based on the results. The site also has resources about testing sites and insurance reimbursement for at-home tests.

The Biden administration said it was buying a billion rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests to distribute to Americans. Half of those are expected to be available for order this week. The White House said its goal was to make sure everyone has a test available when they need one, especially given that tests are in high demand and are often difficult to find in stores.

Source: Engadget – COVIDTests.gov is accepting orders for free rapid tests a day early

Twitter’s experiment with misinformation reporting is now available in more countries. As TechCrunchreports, Twitter has expanded the “it’s misleading” reporting test to Brazil, Spain and the Philippines — a significant rollout when the option was previously available only in Australia, South Korea and the US. The rollout should continue throughout 2022.

The tool has been popular, at least. Twitter said it received over 3.7 million reports since the misinformation test went live in August 2021. While site integrity head Yoel Roth said the “vast majority” of misinformation responses were either automated or proactive, the user reports have already helped the company detect patterns. It was especially useful for spotting links and media beyond Twitter, Roth said.

The leader cautioned that reports had their limitations so far. Only about 10 percent of them merited action versus 20 to 30 percent for other categories (such as abuse). Some people were prone to merely flagging off-topic tweets as misinformation. The experimentation will give Twitter a chance to “filter and prioritize” reports, according to Roth, and to improve the functionality for non-English languages.

Along with the Birdwatch fact-checking program, the expanded reporting test represents a partial shift toward crowdsourcing as part of Twitter’s efforts to fight falsehoods. We wouldn’t expect Twitter to rely primarily on users given the sheer volume of posts. These initiatives might help Twitter catch misinformation it would otherwise miss, however, and could prevent bogus claims from gaining significant traction.

Source: Engadget – Twitter expands misinformation reporting to three more countries