So, if your aim is to get inside someone's device without their permission and gather up information, you could do that using a very sophisticated commercial spyware technology like Pegasus. The latest iteration of it employs zero click technology meaning that it can target and insert itself on any device without the owner of that device even knowing or being tricked into clicking on a link. That's very powerful, because there is no defense against it.

Ronald Deibert

A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Ronald Deibert is a professor of political science at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Citizen Lab. He recently gave the 18th annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture at the National Endowment for Democracy. Its title was “Digital Subversion: The Threat to Democracy.” His article, “Subversion Inc: The Age of Private Espionage” in the most recent Journal of Democracy is based on this lecture.

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Key Highlights

• How Black Cube tried to infiltrate Citizen Lab
• How autocrats continue to repress political dissidents overseas
• The privatization of espionage and spycraft
• The link between surveillance capitalism and private espionage
• What liberal democracies can do to defend civil society

Key Links

Citizen Lab

Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture "Digital Subversion: The Threat to Democracy" by Ronald Deibert

"Subversion Inc: The Age of Private Espionage" by Ronald Deibert in Journal of Democracy

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Can Democracy Survive the Internet? Nate Persily and Josh Tucker on Social Media and Democracy

Winston Mano on Social Media and Politics in Africa… And what America can Learn from Africa about Democracy

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