"UK to host spyware firm accused of aiding human rights abuses", 6 Feb 2020

The British government is helping a controversial Israeli spyware company to market its surveillance technologies at a secretive trade fair visited by repressive regimes, the Guardian can reveal... The government will host the NSO Group, which sells technology that has allegedly been used by autocratic regimes to spy on the private messages of journalists and human rights activists, at the closed Security and Policing trade fair... NSO has faced allegations that its technology is used to target human rights activists and reporters around the world... NSO has denied the allegation[s]... [NSO] says it is “committed to the proper use of its technology to help governments strengthen public safety and protect against major security threats”... Martyn Day, a lawyer [...] said: “Unless the government is prepared to take a stand and make it clear that it is inappropriate for such software to be sold to oppressive regimes then we are nothing short of colluding with those very regimes in their oppression of dissidents... A Home Office spokesperson said...: “The government will do all it can to help keep British people and British interests safe in the UK and overseas”.