Across Europe, spyware ranks among the gravest dangers to fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the space available for civic engagement. EDRi has compiled a document pool containing 25 pieces of analysis, advocacy work, research, and vetted external materials to advance its campaign for a comprehensive prohibition on spyware throughout the European Union.
Why spyware violates human rights?
The technology's intrusive and concealed capacity to access personal devices without consent enables extraction of vast quantities of sensitive information while undermining the device's security and functionality. This characteristic makes it impossible to meet the legal thresholds of necessity and proportionality that human rights frameworks demand, and renders meaningful oversight of its deployment unfeasible.
Both the deployment of spyware and the commercial ecosystem sustaining it operate through deliberate opacity, which blocks public scrutiny, prevents accountability mechanisms from functioning, and denies individuals the ability to discover whether they have been surveilled or to pursue remedies.
The technology infringes on the right to privacy and data protection while simultaneously generating deterrent effects that suppress freedom of expression, freedom of association, and meaningful participation in civic life. These consequences are structural in nature and cannot be adequately mitigated or managed. Consequently, deploying spyware stands in direct and irresolvable conflict with human rights obligations.
Source: EDRi (European Digital Rights)
