Serbia on Tuesday uses the technology following allegations that Serbia's police and intelligence agency will use Celebrite technology to unlock journalists and activists' phones and then plant spyware. It has been announced that it has stopped stopping.
In December 2024, Amnesty International released a report accusing Serbian police of using Cellebrite's forensic tools to hack into local journalists and activists' mobile phones. Once the phone was unlocked, Serbian authorities installed Android Spyware. AndroidSpyware was called Novispy and kept an eye on the two.
In a statement, Celebright said: “After reviewing the allegations filed in the Amnes International Report in December 2024, Celebrite has taken accurate steps to investigate each claim in accordance with our ethics and integrity policies. At this time, We found it appropriate for related customers to stop using the product.”
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Cellebrite did not name its customers in this statement. However, in December, when it originally responded to Amnesty's report, the company said it was aware of the nonprofit's “studies on the use of surveillance technology on Serbian civil society.”
Victor Cooper, a spokesman for Cellebrite, declined to comment when TechCrunch asked if this was a permanent or temporary suspension, or if there was anything that customers could do to recover.
“Removing licenses from customers who misuse equipment for political reasons is an important first step,” said Donnaó Cearbhaill, head of the security lab at Amnesty International, in a statement. “Now, Serbian authorities urgently conduct their own, thorough and impartial investigations, retain the person responsible for explaining, providing relief to victims and providing appropriate safeguards to prevent future abuse. It has to be established.”