The ice revitalizes the nod

The United States for Migration and Customs (ICE) Contract Last year with the Israeli Spy programs Paraguce maker worth $ 2 million.

Soon after, Biden Administration Put the contract under reviewIssuing “suspension of work”, to determine whether the contract is compliance Executive On commercial spyware, which restricts US government agencies to use spyware that can violate human rights or target Americans abroad.

Almost a year later, when the contract seemed to be just running out and never became active, ICE raised the suspension of work, according to public records.

“This contract is intended for a fully composed ownership solution, including licensing, devices, guarantee, maintenance and training. This amendment is to raise the work order,” Read update On August 30 for the US government’s federal purchasing data system, a government contract database.

Independent journalist Jack Bolson He was the first to inform the news in his news message.

For years, Paraguce implanted a picture of being a “moral” spyware maker, in charge of controversial spyware providers such as the Piracy Team, IntellexaAnd NSO collection. On Official websiteParaguce claims to provide its customers with “tools, difference and moral visions.”

The spyware maker faces an ethical dilemma. Now that the contract with the ICE Information Technology Department has become active, the matter is due to Paragon to decide whether he wants to continue his relationship with ICE, an agency that has formed great mass deportations and expanded its monitoring powers since Donald Trump took over the White House.

Emily Horn, spokeswoman for Paraguone, as well as CEO John Fleming, did not respond to a request for comment.

In an attempt to show goodwill, in February this year, Fellang told Techcrunch that the company only It sells to the American government and other unlimited allies.

Paraguce had a thorny ethical dilemma. In January, WhatsApp revealed that about 90 of its users, including journalists and human rights workers, He was targeted by Paragon espionage toolsAnd called the graphite. In the following days and weeks, Italian journalist Franchisco CANCELlato and numerous Local pro -migration Activist He said they were among the victims.

In response to this scandal, Paraguce cut ties with the Italian governmentAnd that was launched in the meantime an inquiry to determine what happened. Then, in June, Digital Rights Research Laboratory He emphasized that two other journalistsA unveiled European has been hacked and a fellow in CNCELlato, with Paragon spying.

Italian parliamentary committee He concluded that the espionage of pro -immigration activists was legalBut she also claimed that there was no evidence that the intelligence agencies in Italy, former Paraguayan agents, targeted CNCELlato.

“These tools are designed for dictatorships, not democracies built on freedom and protection of individual rights,” John Scott Rilton, the first researcher at Citizen Lab, who has been in cases of abuse of spyware for more than a decade, told Techcrunch.

The researcher said that even spyware “spoils”, which is why “there is an increasing pile of spyware scandals in democracies, including with graphite in Paraguce. The worst, Paraguce still protects spyware. Look only to the breakthroughs that are still not crowded with Italian journalists.”