# India Bypasses Local Procurement Rules to Acquire Israeli Surveillance Tech Government agencies gain advanced phone-hacking capabilities despite lacking clear legal oversight or privacy safeguards. - **Source:** [Al Jazeera English – All News](https://www.aljazeera.com) - **Published:** 2026-11-12 - **Topic:** [politics](https://brifing.si/c/politics) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/cbc4aab3-2a8b-4815-a48b-9e13546db100 ## Ministerial Waiver for Procurement Indian Home Minister Amit Shah signed off on a one-year waiver of 'Make in India' procurement rules on January 7. This decision cleared the path for government forensic institutions to purchase at least 422 items of foreign technology, specifically including advanced phone-extraction and surveillance products manufactured by the Israeli firm Cellebrite. ## Scope of Surveillance Tools The approved procurement list includes 118 items under digital and multimedia forensics. Beyond Cellebrite’s Pathfinder and Inseyets tools, the government sought software from companies like Magnet, MSAB, and Oxygen Forensics. These tools enable dark-web monitoring, cryptocurrency investigations, and open-source intelligence gathering, significantly expanding the state's reach into private digital data. ## Accessing Cloud and Devices Tender specifications reveal that Indian agencies demanded software capable of bypassing passwords on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. The tools must also extract login tokens to access over 100 cloud services, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Tinder, while also pulling data from connected devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart speakers. ## Bipartisan Adoption of Tech The acquisition of these surveillance capabilities is not limited to the federal government or Bharatiya Janata Party-led states. Documents indicate that states governed by the opposition Indian National Congress, including Kerala, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh, have also purchased similar phone-cloning and data-extraction tools, reflecting a broad, cross-party adoption of invasive forensic technology. ## Lack of Legal Guardrails Legal experts argue that India operates in a legal grey zone regarding digital surveillance. While the Supreme Court recognized privacy as a fundamental right in 2017, no specific statute currently regulates the forced unlocking of phones or the retention of extracted data, leaving citizens without meaningful legislative, parliamentary, or judicial oversight. ## Impact on Targeted Individuals Journalists and activists report suspicious incidents involving their devices. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee alleged a failed cloning attempt on his iPhone during protests, while reporter Mohammad Aslam Hussain noted that footage was selectively deleted from his phone after police detention. These accounts highlight growing concerns over the potential misuse of forensic tools. ## Comparison with Global Standards Unlike countries such as the United Kingdom or Germany, which maintain parliamentary or judicial oversight mechanisms for surveillance, India relies solely on internal executive review. Critics like lawyer Vrinda Bhandari emphasize that the absence of external friction makes it significantly easier for the government to conduct mass, intrusive surveillance on individuals. ## Future Surveillance Implications The integration of these tools into law enforcement agencies marks a shift toward wider and deeper surveillance capabilities. As forensic technology becomes more sophisticated, the ability to bypass encryption and access cloud-based accounts without clear legal protocols poses a persistent challenge to the protection of individual privacy rights across the nation. ## Sources covering this story - https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/11/12/india-bypasses-own-rules-to-buy-israeli-phone-hacking-tech?traffic_source=rss — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._