Judge forbids NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users
WhatsApp has won a ruling against spyware maker NSO Group forbidding it from targeting its users, while NSO Group in the same ruling got a massive reduction to the punitive damages a court had previously awarded.
Northern California District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton granted the permanent injunction in a ruling late Friday. In doing so, she noted the fundamental harm to Meta’s business, given the nature of WhatsApp.
“The idea of a business offering technological privacy as a service is a relatively new one, as evidenced by defendants’ expert’s discussion of the recent proliferation in end-to-end encryption technology,” she wrote. “Plaintiffs appear to have made such encryption, and the privacy and security that it entails, a significant part of its pitch to users, making it reasonable to conclude that users would be dissuaded from using Whatsapp if its encryption were ineffective.”
At the same time, she reduced the $167.3 million in punitive damages a jury awarded against NSO Group in May. She reduced the amount to $4 million, citing previous court precedent tying the ratio of damages that can be awarded to the behavior in question.
“Other courts may later determine that behavior such as defendants’ is indeed ‘particularly egregious’ and capable of supporting a ratio of even higher than 9/1,” she wrote. “In this court’s view, at this time, there have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious.’”
Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, celebrated Hamilton’s injunction Friday.
“Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,” he said in a statement. “We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society. It sets an important precedent that there are serious consequences to attacking an American company.”
NSO Group had said the injunction “would put NSO Group’s entire enterprise at risk” and “force NSO Group out of business,” Hamilton wrote.
A spokesperson for NSO Group hailed parts of the ruling while criticizing others. The injunction doesn’t apply to NSO Group customers, for instance. (It is also limited to WhatsApp, not other Meta products.)
The 97% reduction in damages was welcome, wrote the spokesperson, Gil Lainer.
“While the remaining sum is still disproportionately high, this significant reduction marks a step in the right direction,” he said in an emailed statement.
An American investment group recently acquired controlling ownership of NSO Group. The Israeli news website Calcalist reported that Hollywood producer Robert Simonds was leading the investors.
“Regarding the request for an injunction, we commend the judge’s determination that the order will not apply to NSO’s customers, who will continue using the company’s technology to help protect public safety,” Lainer said. “However, the continued disregard for the proven value of NSO’s technology in supporting governments and law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism and serious crime undermines the public interest.”
He did not comment directly on whether the more limited injunction the judge awarded compared to the one WhatsApp sought, or the reduction in damages, would still put NSO Group out of business. He said NSO Group would review the decision before deciding its next legal steps.
NSO Group has long been seen as the spyware industry’s company. John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, observed on the social media platform BlueSky that the injunction is a “[h]uge competitive disadvantage for the notorious company” and “seriously dims value of NSO’s spyware product.”
