Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries.
Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming said in a statement to TechCrunch on Tuesday that, “Paragon licenses its technology to a select group of global democracies — principally, the United States and its allies.”
Fleming also said that Paragon “requires that all users agree to terms and conditions that explicitly prohibit the illicit targeting of journalists and other civil society figures. We have a zero-tolerance policy against such targeting and will terminate our relationship with any customer that violates our terms of service.”
These comments come after WhatsApp alleged on Friday that Paragon’s spyware was used in a hacking campaign that targeted around 90 journalists and other members of civil society. Since then, at least two people have come forward claiming they were among the targets: Italian journalist Francesco Cancellato, and Sweden-based Libyan activist Husam El Gomati.
Fleming did not respond to a series of specific questions, including asking for more details about who Paragon considers to be a U.S. ally and a democracy; what exactly its terms of service say about the prohibition of targeting journalists and members of civil society with its spyware; whether the company can and does investigate allegations of abuse, such as those made by WhatsApp; whether the company is investigating WhatsApp’s allegations; and if Paragon has ever terminated a contract because of such violations.
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Last year, Wired first reported that Paragon’s U.S. subsidiary had signed a contract worth $2 million with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but the company did not comment at the time.
U.S. private equity firm AE Industrial made a bid to acquire Paragon last year for around $900 million. When reached for comment, AE Industrial spokesperson Matt Conroy did not comment and deferred to Paragon.
WhatsApp said Friday that it had sent a cease and desist letter to Paragon. Fleming declined to comment on the letter.
Cancellato is the director of news website Fanpage.it, which published an investigation last year on the “Gioventù Meloniana,” the youth wing of the Fratelli d’Italia party, led by current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has been at the head of the Italian government since 2022. Thanks to undercover video recordings of members of the “Gioventù Meloniana,” Fanpage showed that a number of them made racist and antisemitic remarks, used the N-word, and chanted Nazi and pro-Italian dictator Benito Mussolini slogans. The investigation prompted opposition parties to criticize Meloni.
“I feel violated,” Cancellato, who spoke of learning that his phone was targeted, told TechCrunch. “You ask yourself, why me? This is the thing, I mean, what did they want from me?”
While El Gomati lives in Sweden and is Libyan, he has criticized the relationship between the Italian and Libyan government, particularly their collaboration to stop Libyan immigrants from crossing the Mediterranean sea and reaching the European country.
Ynetnews reported on Monday that Italy is a Paragon customer. But there hasn’t been any other confirmation of that claim so far.
Fleming did not respond when asked if Italy was a Paragon customer, and the Italian government did not respond to a request for comment by TechCrunch.
