According to the report published on Saturday by New York Times, several employees agents were developing a document that contained recommendations on how NSO products can be used “under certain specific conditions” and how to approach the case related to the use of similar tools.
In turn, the FBI claims that the limited Phantom license was acquired only for testing and evaluating the capabilities of the product in the hands of attackers. “Spy POS from NSO has never been used during the investigation of criminal offenses,” said the director of the FBI Chris Ray.
But even in this case, it is obvious that the FBI was interested in using such tools to hack the phones of its goals during criminal investigations.
It is known that the government spent almost two years to decide whether it can legally deploy software, without violating America’s legal and constitutional restrictions. However, having learned that this is impossible to do, the agency refused to use Phantom.
The legal note published on behalf of the Bureau last month said that the FBI ultimately decided not to apply Phanom during criminal investigations, but will not refuse to test, evaluate and possible use of other similar tools to receive access from criminals .