Germany is reportedly one of the countries using the Pegasus spyware to collect information from the internal storage, microphones, and cameras of target smartphones.
Deutsche Welle reports that Germany's federal government confirmed to the Interior Committee of the Bundestag, which according to its website is responsible for "the parliamentary oversight of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and its subordinate units and agencies," that the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) secretly bought Pegasus from the NSO Group in 2019.
The NSO Group has sold Pegasus since at least 2018. It's known for using a variety of novel techniques to gain access to a target smartphone, evade detection by the device's security measures, and gather data for the organization that deployed it. That data can include phone calls, text messages, emails, contact information, and media that's stored on the device.
Pegasus most recently attracted criticism after Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International shared a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers associated with journalists, activists, and politicians who had been identified as potential targets for the spyware. WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart later said Pegasus was used against "senior government officials" allied with the US.
Deutsche Welle reports that Pegasus "has been used in select operations concerning terrorism and organized crime since March of this year." Germany's federal government has largely denied requests to offer more information about the spyware's usage, however, which has led several politicians within the country to call for more transparency regarding its deployment.