Former Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh claimed Sunday that reports of the police using NSO Group's infamous Pegasus surveillance technology illegally are false, stating that such actions would be impossible as the department does not possess the spyware.
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Media reports suggested that Alsheikh was not altogether mistaken, as the police do no, in fact, use Pegasus, rather a "weaker" version of it, referred to as "Siphon."
Last week's report in financial daily Calcalist, revealed that the measure – classified by the police as "technological and data-oriented policing" – was not limited to special cases such as tracking terrorist threats or criminal activity, rather became a routine tool in intelligence-gathering to obtain information from civilians ranging from politicians and government functionaries to social activists and journalists.
The report further alleged that the wide-ranged use of Pegasus was done without court orders or authorization from the Attorney General's Office, as required by law.
The Justice Ministry said Sunday that it was combing through a database provided by NSO Group, which has denied wrongdoing amid months of spiraling reports in Israel and abroad of privacy violations by government clients using Pegasus.
The log provides accurate information on phones infected by the spyware, the company said.
The Justice Ministry stated that some 1,500 phone numbers were checked and so far, it has been found that "no action was taken against anyone in the absence of a court warrant against them."
An inquiry being conducted by a deputy attorney-general "is also checking the information in the NSO company's internal database, which was made available," the ministry said.
Speaking at an academic symposium Sunday, Alsheikh, who has been in the eye of the storm, sought to debunk Calcalist's report, saying that the allegations included in it "were thoroughly investigated and found – without exception – that this never happened."
His statement took many aback since in the week since the scandal broke, the police never denied being in possession of Pegasus, rather asserted that it followed the letter of the law when using it.
"It's hard to make sense of the [media] spins and that's exactly what it is – a spin, and someone will have to pay for it," Alsheikh said.
He explained that Pegasus technology allows the user "to access all the information on the phone remotely. The police can search your phone only going back 10 days – not 10 years.
"The judicial oversight on this process is insane – and rightfully so. This is a very considered and documented process," he noted.
The former police chief's statement did little to assuage the scandal, as media reports immediately suggested that the police were using "Siphon" surveillance technology, referred to as a "weaker version" of Pegasus.
Alsheikh said that "the sensitivity with which the Israeli Police operate the tools in its disposal – all of them, including basic wiretaps, [phone] tracing, etc. - is amazing and rigorous. This doesn't mean that mistakes don't happen, but there is no chaos.
"The process of protecting civilians' privacy alongside the need to fight crime in accordance with the law is held sacred," he emphasized.
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