A year on from the Pegasus project, governments still have access to surveillance technology

‘NSO Group and its financiers are still profiting from facilitating targeted surveillance-related human rights violations.’ Photograph: Vesa Moilanen/Rex/Shutterstock

One year ago, the Pegasus project revealed the unlawful targeting of activists and human rights defenders by governments using controversial surveillance software sold by NSO Group.

The scale of the investigation – carried out by more than 80 journalists from 17 media organisations, including the Guardian, in 10 countries and coordinated by Forbidden Stories, with the technical support of Amnesty International – was shocking. The friends and family of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were victims. Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi women’s rights activist, had been targeted. Even renowned heads of state – such as Emmanuel Macron, Imran Khan and Cyril Ramaphosa – were identified as targets.