Pegasus – A Huge Information Leak

In 2017, new dawn gleamed upon India as the Right to Privacy was held1to be an essential facet of the Indian Constitution. However, not long after that, it was claimed2that the privacy of individuals was at stake. This was the result of WhatsApp revealing in public that its information was compromised. While this public interest litigation was withdrawn to amend the mistakes in the same, it brought several privacy issues in limelight. The most crucial disclosure was the modus operandi of the spyware called Pegasus created by the NSO3group. Pegasus can be secretly loaded into electronic devices to harvest personal data. And this data is thereafter, licensed to the agencies of the government.4

The concerns raised were overlooked until a report5 alerted that Pegasus has been utilized for a huge information leak. This included the names of several eminent persons from the Indian territory as well. A multitude of lawsuits by journalists, activists, and even academicians followed this revelation. Sections 12 and 13 of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 allows the processing of personal data without consent for public interest or maintenance of public order. Such a ground lacks an appropriate definition which allows the same to fall prey to malevolent intentions. Further, permits the government to direct interception, monitoring, or decryption of information in case the sovereignty, integrity, or security of the country is at peril.6 Similarly, the authority to intercept messages has also been accoladed under Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

It is a tough hour to encapsulate the tussle between the individual right to privacy with the government’s authority to defend national security. Baby steps must be adopted to enact reasonable privacy legislation while stating the borders of government surveillance.

1Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors., (2017) 10 SCC 1.
2 RSS’ Govindacharya Moves SC Seeking NIA Probe Against WhatsApp, THE QUINT, (Nov. 05, 2019, 10:53 AM), https://www.thequint.com/news/india/rss-man-govindacharya-petition-supreme-court-against-whatsapp nso-cites-privacy-violation.
3 Stanly Johny, NSO Group | The Spy Who Came in for the Phone, THE HINDU, (Jul. 25, 2021, 12:15 AM), https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/nso-group-the-spy-who-came-in-for-the phone/article35512209.ece.
4 Ankita Sethi, India: Pegasus and The Law, MONDAQ, (Set. 02, 2021, 9:29 AM),
https://www.mondaq.com/india/privacy-protection/1107548/pegasus-and-the-law
5 The Pegasus Project: Massive Data Leak Reveals Israeli NSO Group’s Spyware Used to Target Activists, Journalists, and Political Leaders Globally, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, (Jul. 18, 2021), https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/the-pegasus-project-massive-data-leak-reveals-israeli-nso-groups spyware-used-to-target-activists-journalists-and-political-leaders-globally/.
6 The Information Technology Act, 2000, § 69, No. 21, Acts of Parliament, 2000.

Priya Kumar
Writer