Israeli Phone Hacking Company 'Cellebrite' Sued To Stop Sales To Hong Kong

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Human rights advocates filed a new court petition against the Israeli phone hacking company Cellebrite, urging Israel's Ministry of Defense to halt the firm's exports to Hong Kong where security forces have been using the technology in crackdowns against dissidents as China takes greater control of Hong Kong. In July, police court filings revealed that Cellebrite's phone hacking technology has been used to break into 4,000 phones of Hong Kong citizens, including prominent pro-democracy politician and activist Joshua Wong. He subsequently launched an online petition to end Cellebrite's sales to Hong Kong which gained 35,000 signatures.

"Defense Ministry officials must immediately stop the export of the Cellebrite system which is used for infringement on privacy, deprivation of liberty and freedom of expression, and political incrimination of Hong Kong citizens under the new National Security Law," Wong wrote in a Facebook post urging Israel to stop the Cellebrite's exports to Hong Kong. Hong Kong activists say that Cellebrite's tech is "used to inflict terrorism on the city's residents and to attack demonstrators and pro-democracy activists." Israeli human rights advocates say exports to Hong Kong police should legally have stopped in 2019 when anti-democratic crackdowns grew dramatically. Now the Israeli petition in court aims to put legal and political pressure on the Tel Aviv-based technology firm. "I'm asking the Minister of Defense to stop the Cellebrite exports to Hong Kong," says Eitay Mack, the human rights lawyer who filed the petition in the district court in Tel Aviv. "I'm also saying that, as far as I know, they never got an export license. The Ministry of Defense needs to enforce the law from companies with licenses but also they need to do oversight on companies working without a license."

when apple get's ask by Hong Kong will they jump

[Joe_Dragon]

when apple get's ask by Hong Kong will they jump to help them?

uhhh huhhh... sure....

[Anonymous Coward]

And I'm sure that Israel will stop stealing land and water from Palestinians.

Jesus Christ... these guys went from victims of genocide to perpetrators of an even larger genocide.

I mean... do they at least see the irony???

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus Christ...

Perhaps the lack of the Lord in their life is why they murder their neighbors for existing.

Re:uhhh huhhh... sure....

[smooth wombat]

these guys went from victims of genocide to perpetrators of an even larger genocide.

They did learn well from their oppressors, didn't they? In some cases they have lifted Nazi laws almost verbatim to use against Palestinians.

Funny how they're always the victim.

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[Sun]

Care to name one law lifted verbatim?

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[gl4ss]

no they don't and get extremely angry if you ask why they don't integrate the conquered people and respect property rights. I mean when you're doing worse than Russia in that regard it's pretty bad. They also have no plans to do anything about it seemingly, with just plans to just bulldoze more and build more pointless suburbs where their own citizens can live inside a more posh ghetto of their own practically just on social security like bums (which probably just makes them more angry too). it's all rather

Re:

[Agripa]

Their neighbors do not respect their right to exist, so what do you expect?

6,000,001 wrongs don't make a right

[shanen]

The worship of money is not a good thing. But the entire economy of Israel has become highly distorted around security-related businesses. Peace is NOT an option if your living depends on war? Customer has cash? Will sell arms or whatever.

Funny coincidence. Right now I'm reading IBM and the Holocaust about how IBM's Hollerith cards and Dehomag's machines were used to keep tabs on the murder of 6 million Jews, among other bad things. But who's counting? Dehomag is counting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] But I didn't know that Chuck Flint, the guy who hired Watson to lead IBM, had also made a lot of money selling weapons to needy dictators anywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] only touches the surface of that part of his career.

Now we just add one more bad thing? Let's help the Chinese dictator Xi "deal with" the "troublemakers" causing their "little problems" in Hong Kong. I don't think having suffered is sufficient excuse for making other people suffer. (Maybe they should try 6,000,001 lefts?)

Another unfunny coincidence. Pompeo using Jerusalem as a stage prop that is supposed to help the King of Lies extend his reign of error. Goes well with the Chinese reign of terror, eh? (Did you know Pompeo is an evangelical? Which leads to the truly funny coincidence of Liberty University's hypocritical and immoral president (or ex-president). (Not sure what his status is just now.))

Me? I don't think America needs a king and I have a personal thing against lies, even though it's so hard to figure out the truth. My ontology of lies has been strained and forcibly extended in recent years. It started with Heinlein's simple focus on partial truths (what I classify as Level 2 lies) and projected lies (which I file under Level 3 lies of reframing and deframing). Level 1 became the obvious counterfactual statements where any fool can check the facts, then forcibly extended to Level 0 lies of self-contradiction. Now I think I have to add level for self-delusion or insanity, but I can't figure out if that should be Level 4 or Level -1.

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[Sebby]

Now I think I have to add level for self-delusion or insanity, but I can't figure out if that should be Level 4 or Level -1.

How about Lies '' (infinity symbol that Slashdot still can't handle in 2020).

Re:

[shanen]

I think such a symbol would have to refer to an infinite series. I think the problem is more like the one with the old right-left political scale. It was supposed to start on the extreme left with "radical" and end on the far right with "reactionary", but the extremists on each end seemed to wind up falling off the scale and converging on the same actions, even though they would still insist that their motivations were absolutely different and opposed. There's also confusion due to questions around motivati

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[phantomfive]

I don't think America needs a king and I have a personal thing against lies

I'm glad to hear that.

If Trump want to show how good he is

[Sebby]

at Executive Ordering he should do one against doing any business dealings with Cellebrite. But we all know he won't.

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[lessSockMorePuppet]

He'd need to move to stop that behavior here at home for it to be more than empty words. He would need to bar the various UE companies from selling surveillance gear and materiel to other countries, but more importantly, to the government and police here at home.

Otherwise, it would be just another variation on rules for thee, and not for me.

Of course, this is all highly improbable and only barely imaginable in some alternate universe...

irony?

[supernova87a]

So, we want to force a company whose business is to circumvent encryption and people's security of data to now "act ethically and with human rights in mind"? How many layers of contradiction are to be found here?

Re:

[Slonak Nana]

No contraction, when there is a force there usually a force that works against it.

As technology we created is a double-edge sword; if use wrongfully; the people who are being oppressed will not just sit & lay low, to wait for slaughter; They are just doing something to prevent wrongful use to them, or any others who are being oppressed by evil regime.

Its these Tug of War that makes Civilizations to go forward isn't it?

Weird...

[VeryFluffyBunny]

...that colonials would be opposed to oppression & ignoring human rights.

So hands up who here doesn't come from a colony (USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc.) or a colonial state (Britain, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, etc.). C'mon, don't be shy. Anyone here qualified to cast the first stone?

Oh, the irony...

[hyades1]

You can bet anybody who is too critical of the large, growing and utterly conscienceless security sector of Israel's economy is going to be labelled "anti-Semitic" faster than a preacher empties the collection plate.

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[Miles_O'Toole]

And you think Slashdot is the only forum relevant to my comment...isn't that cute!

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[Phact]

Your words:

"You can bet anybody who is too critical..."

I took your bet and you lost.
I repeat: You're the only one bringing up any talk of Antisemitism.

Lovely to see all the antisemitic posts

[Pierre Pants]

Whenever Israel is mentioned, the lowlifes come out in full force, with their "legitimate criticism of Israel". This includes: "Israel learned from its oppressors", "6 million wrongs don't make a right", "they steal the land of a made up Palestinian people", etc. etc. You sickening fucks don't really have a voice, though, you're cowards on the Internet. Here's a resource that will you lowlifes a lot to be upset about. Start barking: https://honestreporting.com/ho... [honestreporting.com]

Cellebrite Hacks iPhones

[Vandil X]

The same company that helps US Government agencies hack into iPhones could very well be helping the Chinese government do the same in Hong Kong. Go figure.