“I read the information Apple put out yesterday and I'm concerned,” WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart said in a Facebook message. “I think this is the wrong approach and a setback for people's privacy all over the world. People have asked if we'll adopt this system for WhatsApp. The answer is no.”
WhatsApp was taking a stand against the dangerous use of spyware, Cathcart said. He insisted it would be wrong for the government to force his company to build a backdoor into its products, and ultimately, he feared such a demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty the government was meant to protect.
“NSO Group claims they responsibly serve governments, but we found more than 100 human rights defenders and journalists targeted in an attack last May. This abuse must be stopped,” Cathart added.
NSO Group Technologies is an Israeli technology firm whose spyware called Pegasus enables the remote surveillance of smartphones and was used to track human rights defenders, activists at journalists and the behest of governments and other actors. It was founded in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio.