The collaborative investigation by over a dozen media houses and some other non-profits over the past few months has uncovered a vast network of cyber-surveillance. The scale of surveillance has been found out to be very extensive, ranging across four continents. This all has been made possible by a spyware named Pegasus supplied by a small Israel-based company NSO. The company was founded in 2010 and has been spreading its wings since then. The founders of the company have intended the spyware to be used against criminals and terrorists. But the revelation by the consortium has revealed that the spyware is being misused against non-terror entities and individuals. The company has also clarified that it sells 51 per cent of the spyware to intelligence agencies, 38 per cent to law enforcement agencies, and 11 per cent to the military. The countries that are confirmed to be customers of NSO include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This could include more countries. The problem is not only the scale of the use of the spyware, it is also its dangerous depth. The real problem is the alleged use of surveillance against journalists, opposition leaders, and activists. The investigation suggests that in India, around 38 journalists were possible targets for surveillance through the use of spyware. What the spyware does is that it just sends a malicious link through messaging platforms and when the target clicks the link, a whole lot of data can be extracted through the spyware. The data that can be extracted includes personal conversations of the target through emails, WhatsApp, SMS etc.; their photo gallery, phonebook and GPS location. The spyware is also capable of activating the microphone, camera or recording calls. Even the privacy walls of the safest operating systems like iOS are not impenetrable to the 'ultimate spyware'. In any case, if these intrusive activities are used against civilians instead of criminals and terror groups, the discourse around the privacy of individuals, which is so much talked about these days, becomes meaningless. In India, the Supreme Court held in 2017 that the right to privacy is implied under the fundamental right of life and liberty. If such is the gravity of the issue then the government must break its silence over the matter and come out with a proper safeguard against the loophole. What is more important is the crucial element of transparency that seems lacking. The government should make no delay and come out with the information if it has made legitimate use of the spyware in the past. Since the matter concerns something as crucial as the privacy of citizens, accountability has to be ensured on an urgent basis. If the government comes out with such disclosures, without compromising the security of the nation, it will reflect well on its credibility. The league of nations — in terms of the democratic fabric — India has been put into is not very inspiring. It is time that we come out clear from the mess. However, efforts on this front also seem largely absent. Even last year, WhatsApp had revealed that Indian journalists and human rights activists were among some 1,400 people who were spied across the globe through the spyware. The issue gradually subsided without finding any concrete solution. WhatsApp has even gone on to sue the company. It is worth asking how a tool of such wide-ranging capabilities and potential for misuse can be allowed at the mere conviction that the customer parties will use it in the right direction. It should be contingent upon tech companies to come up with follow-up technical methods to bridge the gap arising out of their original invention. There have to be legal obligations or incentives for such companies to solve the problems arising out of their products. It is shocking that in a world where every little bit of information is spread across the globe in no time, such vast surveillance has been operating over years, and very silently — on the belief that customer parties will make good use of the product, and not bad. It is also important to provoke messaging apps to fix the bug in their system with immediate measures. However, above everything, two things will define the solution to this problem of unprecedented scale and depth — how aware are the people; and how willing, transparent and firm are the governments.